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ActionSA expresses deep concern following the National Police Commissioner’s revelation that a key suspect in the mass murder of 12 people in Saulsville is a parolee who had been released from incarceration in September this year.

Although the full circumstances of this suspect’s parole remain unclear, what is already evident is that this is yet another example of how weak protocols within our justice system enable violent criminals to re-enter communities they should never have been allowed near. 

South Africans continue to be terrorised by violent criminals because our justice system, which is meant to protect law-abiding citizens, far too often extends grace to individuals who have shown a complete disregard for human life and deserve to rot away in prison. Instead, they are routinely released on parole after committing some of the most egregious crimes, including rape and murder. 

ActionSA remains unapologetic in our zero tolerance approach to criminality, where we believe we must overhaul our parole system so that we leave no room for those who commit the most serious offences to have a single repeated opportunity to reoffend. 

ActionSA believes this is precisely why our policy that life must mean life, where criminals are actually punished, is critical to reversing the weak and failed approach the GNU continues to pursue, an approach that places the rights of criminals above the safety of law-abiding citizens.

To ActionSA, the rights of violent criminals will always come second to the safety and security of law-abiding South Africans.

Issued by ActionSA Member of Parliament Dereleen James