Electronic tagging of almost 600 dangerous parolees has been scrapped with immediate effect.
Department of Correctional Services commissioner Zach Modise told regional commissioners on Thursday to remove the tags and provide confirmation within a week.
The move comes amid a row with the supplier of the tags over an unpaid bill of more than R100-million, and follows a warning last month by correctional services' chief financial officer, Nick Ligege, that the department needed to tighten its belt.
The tagging system is used for convicts who have been given parole after being imprisoned for serious violent crimes, and those who have finished serving "life sentences".
Department spokesman Logan Maistry said the five-year contract with Engineered Systems Solutions had been terminated after President Jacob Zuma signed a proclamation ordering a Special Investigating Unit probe into how it was awarded.Modise's memo the following day instructs regional commissioners to summon tagged offenders to community correctional offices for the removal of tags and "reclassification", which involves giving them instructions about monitoring and reporting points.
"The regions are requested to develop a transition plan on how the process should unfold and ensure all devices are returned to the service provider through couriers after de-tagging," writes Mvandaba.
Engineered Systems Solutions has taken the department to court, claiming no explanation has been offered for termination of a contract that was supposed to run until 2019...