Cape Town - Prison rights activists, crime fighters and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) are demanding the release of the Station Strangler stating that he has paid for his mistakes after nearly 30 years behind bars.
South African Human Rights Commissioner, Reverend Chris Nissen, said Norman “Afzal” Simons must be freed as he has served his punishment following the kidnapping and murder of Elroy van Rooyen,10, in 1995.
Simons was suspected of being a serial killer after the bodies of 22 young boys were found in shallow graves between 1986 and 1994, he was only convicted Elroy’s murder.
He was sentenced to 25 years for murder and 10 years for kidnapping. His sentence was increased to life imprisonment after a failed appeal bid.
Simons has currently served 28 years behind bars.
“I was present when the bodies were discovered, I took the late former President Nelson Mandela to the house of the Samaai family. I am of the opinion that the law has already taken its course.
“(Simons) has paid for his mistakes, whether he did one or others, leave it in God’s hands. He has been sentenced for the mistakes he made.
“As a Commission, please let him come out and let him open up to the world and tell us of his mistakes, he must live with what he did everyday.
“We do not condone any rape or murder but we must not be hyporcrites, let us be consistent. This man has paid the price, let him answer to God. We must never forget the pain of the parents, the siblings, the victims.
“He must come and speak and say if there were copy cats or if he did it because these families need answers, they need closure.”
Nissen also called on the City of Cape Town and society to create a wall of remembrance for the victims who he said should never be forgotten.
Prison rights activist, Reverend Golden Miles Bhudu said Simons had been forgotten by custodians of parole.
“He should have been out after 13 years and eight months. They know that no-one can call them to order, they have forgotten him. The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) should have come to his rescue. It is scandalous after 28 years in a democracy, I hope that someone who reads the newspaper will still show humanity.”
JICS spokesperson, Emerantia Cupido, said it was in the hands of the Minister of Justice once a sentence of life was imposed and that JICS had no jurisdiction over the length of sentences or parole.
Nathaniel Keet, 12-year-old Baden Keet's father, has been unable to move on with his life and has fallen on hard times.
Tears stream down Keet’s face, he is frozen with pain and is now addicted to drugs.
His sister Priscilla Keet said her brother was never the same after his son vanished but that they were happy that Simons was behind bars.
“It is a good thing that Correctional Services is saying nothing about his parole because he must stay behind bars. The police and justice system failed us as a family, we have no closure and we have been given no support.
“Baden would have celebrated his 40th birthday in December.”
Simons, now 55, is imprisoned at the Drakenstein Maximum Security Prison, sleeping in a single cell with a television and working behind bars.
Since his incarceration, he has been unable to attend the funeral of his mother, Evelyn Simons and his sister.
A former inmate who spent time with Simons at the same prison revealed he was healthy, pleasant behind bars and hard working.
He said Simons had a single cell, a TV set and was working inside an office and would return to his cell at the end of the day.
He also taught inmates behind bars.
Another is a missionary, who once worked at prisons around Cape Town and prayed for Simons.
“He looked fine and was just a bit worried. I prayed with him and that made him feel better and I said he must ask God for forgiveness for the people he has harmed.”
Three years ago, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said Simons was deemed a danger to society and that recommendations were to be submitted to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services.
DCS spokesperson Candice Van Reenen, said: “The Department reserves comment on the status of the offender.”
Department of Justice spokesperson Stephen Mahlanga said the topic was best answered by DCS.
According to a report compiled by professor of psychology at UCT, Professor Colin Tredoux, eyewitness accounts were “questionable and not reliable.”
Simons was a school teacher at Alpine Primary and a patient at a local psychiatric clinic in April 1994.
According to the report and analysis, a nurse at the clinic had noticed how Simons resembled a composite sketch which had been released by the police.
Simons was part of an identification parade, images of this line-up show him dressed in a mustard pants and cream top holding the number 23 on a board.
But Tredoux was not convinced by the eyewitness accounts during the identity parade, stating Simons was the only one who had been dressed with bright colours and that the first witness was unsure while another “hesitated.”
He said in his report: “What is there to say in the case of Afzal Norman Simons? There are striking similarities to many of the cases in the United States where DNA evidence has exonerated 273 people.
“The first is eyewitness evidence of questionable merit. One eyewitness was unable to make an identification, and another made a hesitant identification (“Ek dink dis hy”), both from a line up that seems to have made insufficient effort to ensure that all members were dressed similarly.
“A superficial resemblance to a face composite was taken into account by a trial judge.
“A confession was submitted as evidence, but there are serious questions about the validity of the confession.
“There are also lingering concerns about the mental status of Simons during the interrogation.
Michael Jacobs, former Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum chairperson and crime activist agreed with Tredoux’s findings.
Jacobs has an archive of documents and newspaper clippings dating back to when the murders began.
Jacobs said the man who fit the profile owned a vehicle to get to his destinations and that identity parade was inconclusive.
“Simons took public transport, where is the car? Why didn’t they find the car?
“During identity parades you always have to have the person with the same height and same colour but with this one there are people with different heights and there was no DNA.”