National
Waterkloof 4: Parole board didn't follow guidelines─── 15:08 Thu, 10 Jul 2014
The correctional supervision and the parole board did not follow basic precepts when it revoked the parole of Frikkie du Preez, one of the so-called Waterkloof Four, the North Gauteng High Court ruled on Thursday.
Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann took issue with the composition of the board, noting that one member was replaced and the substitute had not attended public hearing regarding the parole.
"The board did not, as a collective, attend the hearing and consequently the applicant was denied the right to a fair hearing before a properly constituted board," he said.
"The decision of the board is therefore fundamentally flawed and must therefore be set aside."
He ordered that a newly constituted parole board must reconsider Du Preez's application for parole.
Du Preez and Christoff Becker's parole was revoked when a video emerged of the pair drinking what appeared to be alcohol and using a cellphone at the Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria.
The Waterkloof Four - Du Preez, Becker, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt - were released on bail on 11 February after being jailed for beating a homeless man to death in Pretoria in 2001.
Becker and Du Preez were sent back to prison on 28 February.
- SAPA
