The Democratic Alliance has called for urgent reform of South Africa’s parole system following an AmaBhungane investigation that found nearly 28,000 parolees are untraceable. The party says the findings confirm long-standing concerns about the collapse of effective parole supervision.
What the DA is demanding
The DA says it will write to the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services to request a full parliamentary review of the Community Corrections System. The party also wants the committee to petition the Minister of Correctional Services, Pieter Groenewald, to issue a request for proposals for GPS-enabled electronic monitoring within 90 days, launch a pilot programme within 12 months, and amend legislation to make electronic monitoring mandatory for all parolees convicted of violent crimes.
A failure of supervision
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said the disappearance of 28,000 offenders from the parole system is an indictment of the department and a failure to keep communities safe. The party argues that years of underinvestment in real-time tracking and poor coordination with the South African Police Service have turned the system into “a revolving door for reoffending.” The DA wants electronic monitoring to become the backbone of parole supervision.
