Can South Africa’s parole system keep four serial killers locked behind bars?

Four South African serial killers who collectively killed more than 105 people and were sentenced to or life behind bars are under consideration for parole before the National Council for Correctional Services (NCCS).  

It is not the first time that convicted serial killers Christopher Zikode, Stewart Wilken, Cedric Maake and Lazarus Mazingane have been considered for parole. Both Zikode and Wilken have been denied parole three times, while Maake and Mazingane have had their applications rejected twice.

This has raised the question of how many times someone can be denied parole before the system eventually releases them.

Parole is an automatic process and “every offender is considered for possible placement on parole upon reaching their minimum detention period regardless of the nature of their offences”, according to the Department of Correctional Services.

Zikode, known as the “Donnybrook Serial Killer”, murdered and raped 18 people between 1994 and 1995 and was sentenced to 140 years in prison. Wilken, who confessed to murdering 10 people in the 1990s, is “a paedophile, incest offender, necrophiliac, cannibal, serial murderer who targeted children, adults, his daughter, an ex-girlfriend’s son [and] sex workers”, forensic psychologist Gérard Labuschagne noted.