‘Only in SA’ tale beggars belief

It is one of those “only in South Africa” stories which beggars belief … but at the same time shines a light on the dark morass of civil service incompetence which affects so many.

A Pretoria man, convicted of culpable homicide – after a car accident in which two people died – presented himself, as ordered by the court, to a prison to start serving his effective three-year sentence. Yet – he was turned away, because prison officials told him they didn’t have the correct documents.

That was bad enough, but even worse was the fact that it took more than six years for the mix-up to be sorted out… while the man remained free.

By the time the warrant of arrest was finally issued for him, 10 years had elapsed since the original crash and the man applied to the Supreme Court of Appeal to review his sentence. Judge Zeenat Carelse sent the matter back to a magistrate to reconsider sentence – recommending it be changed to corrective supervision.

Carelse said the delay was through no fault of the man, who is now married and settled and has had the jail sentence hanging like a sword over him.

The prisons officials responsible must be identified and fired.

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