Correctional services minister Dr Pieter Groenewald has referred the decision to grant parole to the Griekwastad murderer to the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board for review.
In December, the parole board in Upington granted parole, on his second attempt, to the 29-year-old man who murdered three Steenkamp family members while he was a teenager in the Northern Cape. He was 15 at the time of the murders
The parole board had approved the offender’s parole placement with effect from March 25 2026 until the expiry of his sentence on March 13 2034.
The minister said after careful consideration of the matter, he resolved that the decision be subjected to a review process in terms with the provisions of the Correctional Services Act.
“In terms of section 75(8) of the Correctional Services Act,“ ‘any decision of a Correctional Supervision and Parole Board is final, except that the minister, the national commissioner or the inspecting judge may refer the matter to the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board for reconsideration, and pending the outcome of the decision of the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board, the decision of the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board is suspended,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the parole placement decision is suspended pending the outcome of the review by the review board, which is required to consider the full record of proceedings and either confirm or substitute the decision.
Groenewald said his referral was not a determination of the merits of the case, but a lawful step to ensure that parole decisions are subjected to proper oversight, comply fully with legislative requirements and uphold public confidence in the correctional system.
“The department will communicate the outcome of the review process once it has been finalised,” the ministry said.
In August 2014, the Northern Cape High Court sentenced the teenager to 20 years’ imprisonment for the triple murder of farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife Christel, 43, and their daughter Marthella, 14.
They were shot dead on their farm Naauwhoek on April 6 2012, when the accused was 15.
He was also found guilty of raping the girl and lying to the police.
The man cannot be identified because the Constitutional Court ruled in 2019 that the anonymity of child victims or perpetrators of crime should remain beyond the age of 18, unless they consent to revealing their identity after they have reached adulthood.
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