Mr Speaker, South Africa has been shocked by a series of violent crimes committed by the beneficiaries of President Zuma's special remissions programme. Earlier this year, it was reported that a 94-year-old KwaZulu-Natal woman was attacked and raped by a paroled prisoner who had been released in terms of this programme. A woman in Porterville was kidnapped, held captive for three days and raped repeatedly by two men, one of whom was a beneficiary of the programme. Another prisoner who benefited was arrested after he had broken into a woman's house and brutally raped her too. In total, 114 beneficiaries of the programme have reoffended. Those are only the numbers we have so far.
I hear the President telling us about the successes of the programme. But this is an indictment of a programme that released prisoners without any rational decision-making on an individual basis about whether or not they were suitable for parole.
Would the President not concede to this House that the special remissions programme didn't provide for that rational decision-making and was a serious mistake, given how many people in our country have been victims of crime by reoffenders? And will he apologise today, here in this House where he stands, to the families and the victims of those who have been so brutally affected by his decision? Thank you very much. [Applause.]