Wandile Nsibande's lawyers give parole board until Thursday, then it is the High Court

Wandile Nsibande’s legal team has put a deadline on the parole board: decide by Thursday morning, or the matter goes to the High Court.

The attorney told media on Wednesday that engagements with the correctional facility had taken place that morning over the timeline of the board’s proceedings. The defence had expected the mandatory 48-hour period to run out over the weekend, with a sitting by Monday to consider his case.

That did not happen. According to the defence, the board could not conclude the matter on Wednesday because of the volume of cases before it, and instructed the attorney to return on Thursday morning.

Nsibande was re-arrested shortly after securing bail on Friday on allegations that he violated his parole conditions. As IOL reported on 22 October, his legal team has warned it will approach the High Court if correctional authorities delay a decision on his status.

The delay, the attorney said, appears to turn on reservations the board has raised about compliance reports dating back to 2023. “What we are made to believe is that there is some sort of discomfort from the parole board based on the report that they’ve received,” the attorney said, noting claims that Nsibande was repeatedly absent during unannounced home visits by officials.

The defence answered that directly. It said his absences were routine trips into town, which were reported to the correctional facility at the time. “In our view, that should not be an issue, provided he’s able to explain that,” the attorney said. “What also mitigates against that is he has to sign once a month, and he says he has been doing that, and there’s no dispute about that.”

The attorney also questioned the timing. If Nsibande had been in breach of his parole conditions since 2023, the defence asks why authorities took no action until his recent court appearance.

Nsibande is under correctional supervision until 2034. He was released on parole on 15 April 2022, having been sentenced in 2009 by magistrate Anand Maharaj to 25 years, 15 for robbery with aggravating circumstances and 10 for kidnapping. He was 20 at the time and pleaded guilty. The case arose from the hijacking of teacher Kavisha Seevnarain in Durban by four armed men, who withdrew cash from her accounts and threw her from a 60m-high bridge on the N2 highway. She survived the fall and suffered severe injuries.

Despite the delay, the defence said it expects a favourable outcome. “We trust, we believe that they would exercise their wisdom correctly that today they will release him,” the attorney said. “We are waiting for them to make that decision.”

If the board decides against release, the plan is to make an urgent appeal to the National Commissioner of Correctional Services. Should that fail, the attorney intends to file a review application in the High Court.

For readers outside the system, the sequence matters. A parole board sits to decide whether a person under correctional supervision stays in the community or goes back inside, and its sittings are scheduled against a caseload that regularly runs past the day. Where a board raises a compliance concern, the person affected is entitled to answer it, which is what the defence did on Wednesday. A review application asks the High Court to examine whether the decision was lawfully and rationally taken, and it is a separate process from the criminal case that put the person there in the first place.

The board is expected to sit on the matter again on Thursday morning.