‘Jub Jub’ free – but remember victims

We have to respect the decision by the correctional services department to grant hip-hop singer Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye and Themba Tshabalala parole.

Nor is it within the ambit of those commentators who sit on the sidelines of the legal process to speculate on the mental scars which will be carried by the two men, convicted of killing four young boys and maiming two others in a high-speed drag race, crashing their cars into the group of schoolboys in Protea North, Soweto, on March 8, 2010.

Maarohanye and Tshabalala were originally found guilty on October 16, 2012, of murder, attempted murder, driving under the influence of drugs and racing on a public road by the Protea Magistrate’s Court.

But in October 2014, the murder convictions were overturned and converted to culpable homicide convictions. Their sentences were reduced to 10 years, two of which were suspended.

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This week’s decision means Maarohanye and Tshabalala served four years, one month and one day behind bars. They will serve out the rest of their sentences “in the system of community corrections, whereby they must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until the sentence expires”.

We also have to stand behind the system of paying the price for our sins and the parallel process inherent in the forgiveness of the human condition’s myriad transgressions.

But we are forced to add: it would be approaching the irreverent to forget the names of Prince Mohube, Mlungisi Cwayi, Andile Mthombeni and Phomello Masemola, the four youngsters killed in the tragic incident, or those of Frank Mlambo and Fumani Mushwana, who were left permanently brain-damaged.