Boeremag inmate’s bid for conjugal visits dismissed

The High Court in Pretoria has shot down a legal bid by Boeremag member Wilhelm Pretorius to be allowed conjugal visits with his wife while in prison.

The court last week dismissed Pretorius’ bid, with Judge Jody Kollapen finding prison inmates did not have the express right to conjugal visits under either South African or international law.

“Nor can the constitution be interpreted to provide support for the existence of such a right which is inconsistent with the notion of incarceration.”

The judge did say the question of whether conjugal visits should be a feature of our correctional system was a question requiring debate “and the weighing of diverse, complex and contested issues”.

“Whether such a debate and a process are triggered in the body politic of our country remains to be seen, but it is not a debate whose outcome this court is called upon to determine,” Kollapen added.

Pretorius is currently serving an effective 25-year prison term. In 2013, he and 19 other members of the Boeremag – a rightwing extremist group which tried to overthrow the ANC government in the early 2000s – were found guilty of high treason.

Pretorius was also found guilty of culpable homicide and conspiracy to commit murder – the former in connection with a bomb that was planted in Soweto and wound up killing local mother Claudina Mokone; and the latter, a failed plot to assassinate former president and struggle icon Nelson Mandela.

Pretorius and his wife wed in 2017, while he was in prison and in 2018 they were given permission to use artificial insemination to try and conceive. This was successful and resulted in the birth of a baby later that same year.

But in his court bid, Pretorius argued the department of correctional services’ marriage policy, which bars conjugal visits and only provides for prisoners who want children to either adopt or use artificial insemination, unreasonably and unjustifiably limited the exercise of his rights to a family life.

The court, however, disagreed.

“It cannot be said that [his] right to marry or his right to found family has been limited in any manner.

“On the contrary, the evidence compellingly displays those rights have been honoured and the fact that [he] is today a married man and a father is in part due to the enabling policy and legislative framework that made it possible for him to attain such a status while being a prisoner,” Kollapen said.

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