By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Parole Review Summit held at the Kgosi Mampuru II has proposed a dedicated law to ensure certainty and protect communities.
The summit was held on 22–23 September in Pretoria.
The summit brought together policymakers, academics, practitioners, victims, and parolees to critically evaluate and reform the parole framework.
There are growing calls for a dedicated Parole Act to fix glaring weaknesses in the system.
Created under the 1998 Correctional Services Act to focus on rehabilitation, the parole system is now crippled by delays, poor oversight and little to no qualified professionals, who are meant to make life-changing decisions about the release of prisoners.
Authorities conceded that the system is still riddled with flaws — often sidelining victims and eroding public trust.
Minister Pieter Groenewald stressed corrections are a social responsibility. He highlighted that the outcome of this summit will help shape national policies and legislative processes for the benefit of the people of the country, victims of crime and offenders.
Groenewald has expressed his commitment to building a balanced, fair and effective parole system. He explained that the aim of the summit is to look into the parole system, the strengths and the challenges.
“We will explore how we can fix the parole system. It is of uttermost importance that we look at it so we can ensure that we can enhance justice and create safer communities for South Africa. In the end the system will ensure and strengthen justice and create safer communities.”
Over two days, delegates examined deficiencies in the current system, considered human rights obligations, debated strategies to reduce recidivism, and heard the lived experiences of parolees and victims.
Dr Casper Lötter, conflict criminologist affiliated to North-West University’s School of Philosophy (Potchefstroom) emphasised the urgent need for reform. He argued that South Africa’s punitive, stigmatising model perpetuates high recidivism, trapping ex-offenders in cycles of social exclusion and poverty.
In contrast, Finland’s hybrid model, blending accountability with reintegration, has achieved a 70% desistance rate.
Dr Lötter proposed a framework that includes automatic record expungement after five years, employment incentives, community-based justice, and innovative rehabilitation methods such as reflective autobiographies.
With an initial allocation of R50 million for pilot programmes, these measures could reduce recidivism to below 50% within five years, delivering economic benefits, strengthening communities, and advancing a more humane correctional system.
The process to review the parole system began in 2015, when then Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha appointed a task team to “re-engineer” the system. Ten years later, the proposed changes have not yet been tabled in Parliament.
The shortages of professionals in the country’s parole boards are stark, with just 78 psychologists serving the entire prison population, leaving a ratio of one to 2,700 inmates. This is alongside 591 social workers.
Groenewald added that this is a process which has come a long way. It already started in 2015 and when he became the minister, he said this process of streamlining the system must now be finalised.