Pretoria - The imprisoned Boeremag members are still without their laptops, despite the Joburg high court ruling on the matter more than two weeks ago.
The court had ruled that it was unconstitutional for Correctional Services not to allow studying inmates to use their personal laptops in their cells.
Doctors Johan and Wilhelm Pretorius were the applicants who won the initial victory to force the department to allow them – and thus any other inmate in their position – to use their laptops in their cells for studying.
The pair, who are studying towards their PhDs, launched the initial application in 2018 while they were still incarcerated at Zonderwater Prison in Cullinan. They have been relocated to the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
After their court victory, in which the department was ordered to allow inmates who were enrolled in further studies to use their laptops in their cells, it launched an appeal before a full Bench (three judges).
In turning down the appeal, the court has again made it clear that Correctional Services policy that prisoners studying while in jail may not use their personal laptops – minus a modem – in their cells constituted unfair discrimination.
Lawyer Julian Knight, however, told the Pretoria News that in spite of the judgment, his clients still did not have access to their laptops.
He said that while all the other studying inmates at this facility were allowed to use their laptops in their cells, the brothers were not even allowed their laptops during study time in the study hall.
Knight called on the department to immediately comply with the order to return his clients’ laptops.
“If this is not done, I will have no option other than to proceed with contempt proceedings against whoever is responsible for not adhering to the court order by not returning the laptops,” he said.
According to Knight, his clients have been without their laptops for months. When they relocated to Kgosi Mampuru in April last year, an educationist at the prison allowed them, as with the other studying inmates, to use their laptops.
These were, however, confiscated three months later, apparently by the head of the prison, and the pair have not had them since. Knight said there were two judgments, the original by the high court and the latest by the full court, making it clear his clients were entitled to use their laptops.
Judge Leicester Adams, in the latest judgment, confirmed that a state authority could and should not issue policies that unfairly discriminated against any person or any group of persons, which included inmates.
The department took the stance that only students who were enrolled for further studies could have a personal laptop in prison, but these had to be kept in the study rooms.
It also raised the concern that laptops in cells posed a security risk.
The department had promised to comment but had not done so by the time of publication.
Pretoria News