Prisoners at the Mdantsane Correctional facility say their parole applications are taking between 3 and 5 years instead of the usual 90 days.

"It is unfortunate that claims like these will be made because they are nowhere near reality," said Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services.

"Firstly inmates do not have to apply for parole placement, it is an automatic process that gets activated by a structure called Case Management Committee. When inmates are admitted into our system, we draw what we call a correctional sentence plan which then makes a determination to say this person is sentenced to 10 years, having been assessed, these are the programmes that will be applicable to this person and this how we will monitor their rehabilitation journey and at halfway through the sentence, which is the minimum detention period, then his profile will be taken to the parole board to be taken into consideration."

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