No justice is served when a killer walks free

Let’s face it, justice was not served – not with the infamous Krugersdorp “Samurai killer” being released on parole early this month.

It has been 14 years since that fatal day when Morne Harmse took a ninja sword and sliced open the neck of an innocent pupil walking past him that morning.

The victim was collateral damage to an evil plan that was brewing for some time – and little did anyone know Harmse would go through with the attack. The gruesome act and the bloody scene left scars in the hearts of the community.

Both the aunt of the victim and a former friend sang the same tune this week: he is guilty, guilty, guilty. They say time heals. But time does not dry up the tears of the victim’s family, nor bring him back. So where is the justice? Harmse only spent 12 years of his 25-year sentence behind bars. Half of his punishment is not nearly enough for taking another person’s life.

Harmse never confessed, showed remorse, or was rehabilitated – yet he was released. There was simply no justice. The word justice has many definitions from a legal point of view, a spiritual point of view, or just in general.

Justice is the principle that people receive that which they deserve. It sounds a lot like karma, a belief in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, that good or bad actions determined the future of an individual’s existence. But neither justice nor karma, seem to favour the victim in Harmse’s case.

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The National Prosecuting Authority frequently boasts about successful convictions where some criminals receive more than 300 years of imprisonment for more than 100 charges. But how does a 300-year imprisonment work if the maximum time served is 30 years for hardened criminals before they were being released after serving half their sentences?

The reality is South African prisons are overcrowded and the crime statistics are not decreasing, either. At some point, the prisons have no other choice but to start releasing prisoners. Another case that comes to mind was the controversial case of rapper “Jub Jub” who was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in 2012 for killing four children – only to be released on parole in 2017.

Justice not served. It is alarming to think killers such as Karabo Mokoena’s ex-boyfriend, Sandile Mantsoe, can also be released early. Mantsoe was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment after he burnt her body and left the remains in a field in Johannesburg. And let us not forget the 13 years and five-month sentence disgraced Paralympian Oscar Pistorius got for the murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2014.

With Pistorius’ parole date coming up next year, my guess is he would be the next inmate to be released from prison – with or without the consent of Reeva Steenkamp’s parents.