Dr. Pieter Groenewald (Photo: Reint Dykema)
Dr. Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald received numerous wake-up calls after the man who, as a teenager, killed his parents and sister on the farm Naauwhoek outside Griekwastad, was granted parole in December last year.
However, Groenewald says he first requested and considered all the necessary documentation, including the man’s so-called profile file, before he finally decided at the end of January this year to refer the case to the correctional supervision and parole review board for reconsideration.
Groenewald says the correctional supervision and parole review board had to, under the chairmanship of a judge of the High Court, evaluate the original decision of the Upington correctional supervision and parole board and then either validate it or with a new decision in terms of art. 75(8) of the Correctional Services Act substituted.
The Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board finally decided to supersede the original decision.
“The new decision is that the parole board’s decision is revoked and parole is not granted,” Groenewald confirmed to Maroela Media on Thursday afternoon.
Groenewald says the offender will therefore now continue to serve his sentence and must comply with certain measures within the prescribed period, before his possible placement on parole will be considered anew.
Maroela Media reported earlier that the Correctional Services Act stipulates that any decision of a correctional supervision and parole board is final, but that the minister, the national commissioner or the inspecting judge can refer the case to the correctional supervision and parole review board for reconsideration.
The man, now 29, was sentenced to an effective 20 years in prison in August 2014, after he was found guilty of the murders of Deon Steenkamp (44), his wife, Christel (43), and their daughter Marthella (14). He was also found guilty of raping Marthella and defeating the law after he tried to derail the investigation.
The sentences are to be served concurrently.
At the time, as a 15-year-old boy, the man initially claimed that the family were victims of a farm attack. He even led the police to a farm worker whom he falsely implicated as a suspect.
In 2012 and 2013, forensic findings – from ballistics tests to blood trace analysis and a complete reconstruction – systematically disproved his version.
It became clear that the murders took place in his presence and that a farm attack was unlikely. He was arrested in 2013 and pleaded not guilty.
On 27 March 2014, Judge Frans Kgomo found him guilty on all five charges.
Hannes Cloete, the public prosecutor, described the murders at the time as a calculated attempt to cover up Marthella’s rape.