Convicted murder, Donovan Moodley, is expected to have a parole hearing on Wednesday at the Johannesburg Correctional Services Medium B Prison.

The organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) said it is “deeply concerning” to Leigh Matthews’ family that Moodley is appearing at a parole hearing once again.

Matthews was murdered in 2004 after her family paid for her ransom.

Moodley was convicted for her murder and sentenced to life in prison in August 2005. He was also handed an additional 15 years for kidnapping and 10 years for extortion.

“While parole is part of the criminal justice system it remains a very opaque process that appears to favour the convict. WMACA has had experiences of parole being granted where there was no evidence of either remorse or rehabilitation,” WMACA said in a recent media statement.

Matthews’ father, Rob, said the family was disappointed to find out through the media that a new parole hearing had been ordered by the court.

“From our perspective, it appears that there was little appreciation by the court of the plight of victims in this matter. This is terribly sad and clear that South Africa is a long way from a victim centric approach to justice,” he said in the statement.

Moodley earlier made a court application to have the parole process reviewed, yet the court found that there was not sufficient record kept of the proceeding by Correctional Services to come to a finding.

“The outcome of this finding is that the parole process, already completed, needs to be reconvened and essentially redone,” WMACA’s statement reads.

“In the case of the Matthews family, they have already been through this process and it took an enormous toll on the family, who were expecting the murderer of their daughter to serve his full sentenced term, life.

“While awaiting the outcome they were informed that sentenced murderer of their daughter, Donovan Moodley, will be allowed to “redo” the hearing as there is not a sufficient record of the process by Correctional Services to make a finding.

“The family now need to be exposed to the process again due to a poor and opaque system that retraumatises victims and their families in the name of human rights, of a man who murdered their daughter.”