A Cape Town man serving 13 years in jail for armed robbery wants a laptop in his prison cell to finish his studies.
|||Cape Town - A Green Point man serving 13 years in jail for armed robbery has been told he cannot use his laptop in his prison cell to finish his studies.
Ernest Pule Chambisso, 29, originally from Welkom, was sentenced in December 2010 for six counts including attempted aggravated robbery, discharging a firearm at a police officer, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and illegal possession of a firearm and stolen property.
Chambisso told the court that he and a former co-accused had been driving around Green Point looking for houses to burgle.
He said a man named Sheldon Thomas confronted him. Chambisso pointed a firearm at Thomas and fled. Thomas called the police.
As Chambisso was trying to get away he saw that the back door of a house was open, and ran inside.
Michelle le Roux, who was asleep in the house, woke and started screaming. Chambisso hit her over the head with the gun and stole her laptop and camera.
Police arrived but Chambisso escaped. A shoot-out ensued and Chambisso was arrested.
While incarcerated, Chambisso decided to study sound engineering. But he said his studies came to a halt this year when authorities at Goodwood prison removed his laptop.
“How can you spend the whole year not studying? What kind of rehabilitation is that?” Chambisso said.
Correctional Services spokesman Simphiwe Xako said sentenced prisoners were not entitled to have laptops in their cells but could use prison computer rooms.
“We said to him we have a computer room, if you want, you can use it, he doesn’t want to. We can’t allow it (a laptop in a single cell) for security reasons,” Xako said.
Prisoners also had to be under constant supervision to ensure they were not doing anything unlawful.
Chambisso asked why permission was granted to him before, while he was in Beaufort West Prison.
“While I’m studying, in the middle of nowhere, they took it away. I’m in a single cell,” he said. “They used to give us a study area with no supervision and scanned the laptop for pornography, for example.”
Xako explained that Chambisso had changed his course to customer relations when he could not have his laptop with him, and when he heard that prisoners could use their laptops in Beaufort West he reapplied to study sound engineering.
But Chambisso was transferred to Goodwood on April 10 this year, and that privilege was reviewed. Chambisso had to reapply for access to his laptop.
Xako said authorities had decided against reinstating this privilege.
“On June 21 (2013) he was informed that he was not allowed to use it. The only way to help him is if he is transferred back to Beaufort West,” Xako said.
Chambisso is expected to be released on parole in 2016.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus