Impotent grief because father’s murderer will soon be paroled

[Nat Quinn]

 

 

 

 

Impotent grief because father’s murderer will soon be paroled

 

 

 

The man who shot and killed Lappies Labuschagné (65) in cold blood on 10 September 2003 for R191.20, will soon be released on parole after just over 19 years in prison.

Mr. Labuschagné’s children say that the Correctional Services’ parole board met with them and indicated that they would recommend that he be released.

This after Judge Claassen in his judgment in 2005 sent Herold Mabuso to prison for 66 years.

“We feel helpless and confused,” his daughter, Ezanne Boardman, said this week, “We will just have to pray: ‘Lord help!’ because we can no longer do anything ourselves.”

One feels their powerlessness. His children Lappies, Ezanne Boardman and Magda-Marie Brits, became emotional when they talked about the case.

“It is a whirlpool of emotions and we experience everything again as if it happened yesterday, but we are forced to accept it because we cannot change the decisions.”

Lappies tells how, with the previous parole applications, they also caught their father’s killers, Herold Mabuso, Thabo Makowane and Jan Magasha, still telling lies about what exactly happened on the day of their father’s murder.

“Every time we asked any of the three uncomfortable questions, they suddenly couldn’t remember.”

Lappies states that he has sent a letter to the Minister of Correctional Services about the decision.
They have now learned all sorts of new skills in prison, the right boxes have been ticked, but have they really been rehabilitated? Farmers and the elderly will not be safe if Mabuso is released on parole.
He is supposedly going to work for his brother. This after he said at the time after his arrest that he had no family.”

Ezanne is a forensic investigator and was in the police for years.

She told the correctional parole board that from the nature of her work, she found in most cases that when these criminals go out on parole, they just commit the same crimes again.

“It is very disappointing what is happening here. I feel like that night again. The sadness, the anger. You feel, as the Englishman would say, numb. We felt that if we could save just one farmer’s life by keeping him inside, then we had succeeded in our goal. But the justice system has failed us.”

Lappies also says he feels it is not a justified decision, because none of the three accused have ever shown any remorse.

He and Ezanne feel that it is a political decision and that the facts they presented were not really looked at.

“They said we have to get to the point where we have to move on and put it behind us. But how do you go on when your father, your grandfather was killed. If someone else is killed by them, then we must have failed our country’s people. Then their blood is on our hands?”

Magda-Marie agrees with Lappies and Ezanne that people will no longer be safe if the three are paroled. “It has been proven over and over again that if these people go out on parole, that they do it again. It’s a snowball effect!”

Magda-Marie says “it is as if we, our father, have failed.”

Ezanne told how loved her father was in the Tonteldoos community and that even the tribal chief in the area handed in letters to say what an incredible man her father was.

“He was a pillar and advisor in the community. Our children and grandchildren’s lives have been ruined. My mother, Bettie, mourned his death after his murder.”

Ezanne remembers during the previous parole hearing how Magashwa looked past her. “He didn’t look for me, because there was an angel with me.”

They agree that they all believe in forgiveness.
“However, forgiveness comes when there is repentance and they have not shown any repentance until now. That’s what imprisonment is all about, to punish the act! We have been deprived of the privilege of being able to have the father and grandfather we had with us further in our lives.”

Also read:

https://www.citizen.co.za/middelburg-observer/news/2024/02/06/pa-tereggestel-nou-moet-hulle-veg-om-mölderer-agter-tralies-te-hou/

Inquiries were made to the Correctional Services about the matter, but at the time of publication they had not yet provided an answer to our inquiry. Once they respond to it, the answer will be published.

 

source:Magtelose hartseer omdat pa se moordenaar eersdaags parool kry | Middelburg Observer (citizen.co.za)

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