Notorious Cape Town gang lord Rashied Staggie has been granted parole two-thirds into his sentence.
|||Cape Town - Notorious Cape Town gang lord Rashied Staggie has been granted parole two-thirds into his sentence for ordering the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl.
He is to be let out on day parole from September 24, having to report back to prison nightly for incarceration until March 25 when he has full parole after serving 10 of 15 years imprisonment.
Western Cape Correctional Service spokesman Simphiwe Xako said: “(Staggie) was considered for parole placement on 21/05/2013 by the Breederiver Correctional Services Parole Board (which) considered all relevant inputs as received from all role players including the SAPS who were represented by the Major-General Veary, Brigadier A van Dyk and Lieutenant-Colonel Mpindwa.”
Last week, Jeremy Veary, the police’s anti-gang commander, warned of an outbreak of gang wars when gang leaders like Staggie were released from jail. Asked on Tuesday night why Staggie had been granted parole and what he had told the parole board, Veary declined to say, claiming it was sub judice.
“I cannot comment on the parole board’s decision. It’s another department’s jurisdiction. I do respect the decision made by the board and the authority of the provincial Correctional Service Department,” he said.
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) was outraged, saying justice had failed Capetonians because Staggie did not deserve parole.
Spokesman Abdullah Salie said members of community
should have been allowed to influence the parole decision.
“So many communities suffered under Staggie and many young lives were taken. The crimes he has committed had a huge impact on the lives of young people. They broke our poor Cape Flats communities to pieces,” Salie said.
Staggie has been in custody at the Brandvlei Prison in Worcester since 2003.
Staggie was found guilty of giving orders to have a teenage girl from Mitchells Plain kidnapped and gang-raped. He had ordered the girl to be brutalised for allegedly having ties to his gang rivals, the Americans.
In 2004, while in custody, he was also convicted in the Bellville Regional Court of stealing weapons from the Faure police armoury and sentenced to 13 years to run concurrently with the 15-year rape sentence.
Xako said Staggie’s parole conditions included: “Electronic Monitoring while under supervision under normal strict parole conditions under the High Risk supervision category; he must not contact the victims; on his first gang-related violation under supervision he must be referred back to the centre for reconsideration of his parole and Community Corrections must provide the Parole Board with an annual status report on his behaviour during parole.”
jason.felix@inl.co.za
Cape Times