“It doesn’t appear that there has been any remorse on their part as whether they have been rehabilitated. As a department, we are taking the allegations very serious,” Modise told Eyewitness News.
Du Preez and Becker were released on parole from Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria on 11 February, but just four days later a video was released showing the two ‘partying’ in their prison cell.
In the video, du Preez and Becker are filmed drinking alcohol, playing with their cellphones, and listening to music.
“It’s a nice weekend in jail here. We’re having a great time…We managed to get a bottle of something,” said Becker. The two claimed that a suspected warder named “Francois” had provided them with the contraband.
This prompted some political parties and other organisations to question the level of corruption in the prisons:
“Preferential treatment and contraband are a continued problem in our correctional centres and we need higher security to combat them. It is high time that the DCS takes a tougher stance on correctional centre security and corruption,” said the Democratic Alliance’s James Selfe.
“There is indeed an economic apartheid – the monied classes can expect differentiated treatment, they can expect the hardships of imprisonment to be cushioned by greedy jailers bringing in enough of the good things of life to ameliorate the harshness of incarceration,” said the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) CEO, Celia Dawson.
In 2001, du Preez and Becker, along with two others, were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after they were found guilty of beating, kicking and stabbing a homeless man to death.
