FORMER MP MYEZA WANTS SENTENCE RECALCULATED

MBABANE – I should be out by now. Former KaPhunga Member of Parliament Charles Myeza says if his prison term was properly computed he would have been released from the confines of His Majesty’s Correctional Service.

He has filed an urgent application in the High Court where he is seeking an order compelling Commissioner General Mzuthini Ntshangase and the Hhohho regional commissioner to calculate his sentence to include the royal pardons of 2015 and 2016 respectively and remissions in terms of the Prison Act.

Myeza is serving a sentence of five years imprisonment for fraud after receiving about E600 000 from government in respect of electrical services not rendered and or partly rendered by his company, PPC Electrical (Pty) Ltd way back in 2005.

He said when he was sentenced on August 22, 2013 his sentence would have run until August 22, 2018, since the Prison Act provides for remission of four months per year and this means his sentence of 60 months gets reduced by 20 months. According to Myeza, taking into account the remission, his sentence could have ended on December 22, 2016. He said this is notwithstanding that his pardon of 2015 and 2016 as per Prerogative of Mercy of the King was allegedly not computed.

He submitted that to date, he has spent 47 months in prison and believes that no remission was effected on his sentence.
Myeza, who is represented by Leo Ndvuna Dlamini of S.A. Nkosi Attorneys, was released from custody after he filed an appeal.
He was released pending compilation of a proper High Court record. He mentioned that he was not released on bail, which means his sentence was still running.

The former MP said the King announced the respective Prerogative of Mercy in 2015, 2016 and 2017, which was an entitlement of every prisoner who at the time had a remaining sentence of 13 or more months remaining. 
He said of the announcement of amnesty meant that the prisoners’ sentences should be reduced by six months. Myeza said he is entitled to a reduction of 12 months since the 2017 pardon was effected on his sentence.

“It should be noted that applicant (Myeza) was a convict when the amnesties were pronounced and as such he was equally entitled to benefit from these amnesties.”
“It is clear from the continued incarceration that the applicant in this regard did not get any computation on the basis of the amnesties hereof. The refusal of the first and second respondents (Ntshangase and regional commissioner) to take into account this constitutional right is a violation of the Constitution,” he stated.

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