The Minister of Prisons made the following statement with regard to the curtailment of study privileges for political prisoners: "Prisoners not in possession of matric will be allowed to study to matric level. Prisoners who have gained subject successes in post-matric studies whilst in prison will be allowed to complete their studies within a reasonable period of time. New registration for post matric studies will only be considered in highly exceptional cases.
"The decision was taken with due consideration of the provisions of Prison Regulation 109. In the case of post matric qualifications and against the background of the type of crime, it is clear that these prisoners do not qualify for such studies within the scope of the relevant regulation. In addition they abuse study privileges by using study materials for inciting documents, incitement and smuggling to the outside.
"From available information it is also clear that most of these prisoners who obtained post-matric qualifications in terms of these opportunities, either continued their under-mining activities locally or fled to foreign countries to continue their activities there."
Commenting on this, the Black Sash said that the allegations that documents were smuggled out were 'quite incredible' and impugned the integrity of the university correspondence staff to whom the study assignments were directed.
