Pagad members continue to rot in jail amid parole controversy

The release of parolee Moehydien Pangaker in Cape Town – and the farce it showed the parole system to be when he subsequently allegedly murdered eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk – brought to the fore the plight of three former Pagad members who qualified for parole two years ago but were not released.

Ebrahim Jeneker, Abdullah Maasdorp and Mogamat Isaacs were among 11 People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) members who received long jail terms.

These included multiple life sentences for murders related to vigilante-style killings of suspected druglords and gang members on the Cape Flats in the late 1990s.

Pagad leadership had been pleading for clemency for the group, who were jailed between 1998 and 2002.

The community believed the actions of the three were not criminal as they were defending the community against drug dealers and gangsters. Jeneker and Maasdorp, known as Pagad G-Force members, got three life terms each emanating from the shooting of Adiela Davids, her daughter Feroza Marcus and a cousin, Marlene Abrahams, in Grassy Park on 10 April 1999.

Isaacs got three life terms after being convicted of many murders in a revenge attack on Americans gang members.

Now, pressure is mounting on Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola to act in these three cases as the department of justice and correctional services has not processed parole applications since early last year.

Lamola is said to have a huge backlog of parole cases left by his predecessor.

The delay was also due to uncertainty about whether their profiles were sent to Pretoria or not. The three inmates had been eligible for parole since March 2017 but their parole hearings were only heard in March 2019.

There was an outcry from relatives and the community when they were granted only day parole instead of full parole. Recently, the minister told Aljama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks that he had started signing parole approvals and clearing the backlog.

Hendricks said the mothers of the three Pagad members wanted their sons back home to take care of them they as they were approaching 90 years of age.

Hendricks had twice written to Lamola asking him to attend to the parole cases of the three.

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