Foreigners languishing in SA prisons, despite overdue parole dates

Dozens of imprisoned foreign nationals who are up for parole at the Modderbee Correctional Facility in Springs have told of a horrible year spent in jail despite their releases being overdue.

This prison, which has been embroiled in corruption and financial mismanagement allegations since 2017, some of which have been linked to state capture-accused company Bosasa, is now being accused of refusing to release foreign national prisoners, who were initially stuck because of Covid-19.

A prisoner, who claimed to represent over 100 inmates from countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Brazil and who did not want to be named, reached out to The Citizen to explain their plight. Most of them had the same parole date: 26 March, 2020, but have not been released.

Initially, because of the lockdown restrictions on Level 5, there was a moratorium placed on certain parolees. Foreign nationals had the added challenge, if they were to be deported, of then not being able to be admitted to the Lindela Repatriation Facility.

“They promised us we will go out at Level 1. [When] Level 1 came, they changed the story and said East Rand Home Affairs would come and take us to Lindela, but they didn’t.

“When a Covid-19 outbreak emerged at the repatriation facility, there was no indication of how much longer the Modderbee prisoners had to wait. Every day, these prisoners would watch another South African go home.

“Here in Modderbee, we are now more than 100 foreign nationals who were supposed to go out but are still in prison and some of us we arrested for something we didn’t commit.

“Nigerians, Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Angolans, Congolese and Brazilians. It’s like they’re discriminating, or profiting from us,” he said.

Last week, the Gauteng department of correctional services replied to questions on this issue, claiming to have diligently applied its Covid-19 disaster management response strategy across all centres, including placing of parolees in selected categories of sentenced offenders in accordance with Section 84(2) of the constitution of South Africa.

“The allegations that a number of foreign nationals were not released is not true.

“Modderbee has released 219 foreign nationals who were eligible for parole,” said department spokesperson Zandile Mabunda.

She said offenders were screened for the novel coronavirus before they could be released.

“We are working with the department of home affairs, which assists with the repatriation.

“Due to Covid-19 regulations, restrictions on repatriation of foreigners was in place during Levels 5 to 2 due to the restrictions on crossing borders to other countries and these restrictions still apply in other countries.”

The department said 85 foreign nationals were due to be considered for parole. Of them, 67 offenders had been documented by home affairs in preparation for repatriation. The remaining 18 applications were scheduled for documentation this week.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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