Parliament, Tuesday, 9 June 2026 – The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services today received a briefing today from the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) on Community Corrections and parole.
The committee reemphasised its concern over the transference of officials facing disciplinary hearings to oversee parolees. The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Kgomotso Anthea Ramolobeng, said the committee has raised this issue many times and flagged it as a possible concern that officials accused of offending and facing disciplinary matters are moved to community corrections whilst the investigations are ongoing.
The committee heard that current number of absconders since 1991 are 29320 up to the end of last month. The committee heard that the parole system prior 1991 was based on aftercare by the then Welfare department and involvement of employers who reported absconding to the DCS.
Due to unavailability of systems and processes that underpinned the declaration in dealing with absconders, the DCS registered absconders with the South African Police Service (SAPS), Criminal Record Centre (CRC) and notified local police stations. Tracing was only effected after reoffending through the CRC which linked the absconder and the reoffender. There was no tracing done by the department.
Furthermore, parolees were not supervised from 1991 to 1994 and in some instances, offenders were declared absconders after their sentence expiry date. Others were declared absconders just before the sentence expiry date and no conditions were set when placed on parole and no documents and warrants were received by community corrections during placement. During the abovementioned period, the number of absconders was 24 221.
Since 1994, relevant and applicable documents were collated, thus making tracing of parolees by the specialized track and tracing teams which were established in 2021 possible.
The committee also heard that the DCS’s records have not been reconciled with the Department of Home Affairs and most likely includes inmates who died.
“We heard the statistics and note that the list likely includes parolees that could have passed on. We call on the department to work with the Department of Home Affairs to clean up the data so that we can have a clear picture. It’s a matter of basic administrative integrity and must be attended to urgently,” said the Chairperson.
The Chairperson said the committee noted and welcomed the reinstatement of tracking and tracing unit for inmates. “We will monitor this closely and hold the department to account.”
She said at the start of today’s session, that the meeting stems from media articles recently alleging that some 28 000 parolees have absconded and are untraced. The DCS has since rejected the allegations. Several committee members have requested an urgent meeting in order to receive an official update on the matter.
The committee expressed its support for electronic monitoring bands and urged the DCS to move with speed regarding litigation regarding this. The committee is of the view that electronic monitoring will assist in tracking parolees and ensuring that they abide by parole conditions.
Ms Ramolobeng said this will help with the current caseload that officials at community corrections are dealing with. “We were told the caseload in Gauteng is one official per 127 cases and in the Eastern Cape it is one official for every 110 inmates whilst the ideal ratio is 1 to 30. These officials carrying more than three times ideal case load. Technology like electronic monitoring will therefore be extremely helpful” emphasised Ms Ramolobeng.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MS KGOMOTSO ANTHEA RAMOLOBENG.
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