“Today Donovan Moodley got to be just Donovan, Donovan the offender and not Donovan the aggressive, anxious lawyer fighting his own case. And for the first time he came clean and told the whole story of the murder of Leigh Matthews.”
These were the words of Moodley’s lawyer Mohammed Yusuf Razak shortly after a newly constituted parole board, put together specifically to hear Moodley’s case, recommended him for release.
“Now finally, seven years after qualifying for parole, Mr Moodley was able to take the board into his confidence and convince them that he should be released.”
Moodley is serving life for kidnapping and murdering student Leigh Matthews a day after she turned 21 in July 2003. He grabbed her off the Bond University campus in Sandton and drove to a deserted area from where he called her father Rob Matthews and demanded R50,000 ransom.
After taking the money drop, Moodley went back to his captive hostage, ordered her to strip naked and then shot her four times, killing her. Her body was found 11 days later by a grass cutter in Walkerville.
Moodley was arrested several months later by crack detective Piet Beyleveld, who tracked him down. Moodley pleaded guilty to the murder and in 2004 was sentenced to life.
However, during sentencing Johannesburg high court judge Joop Labuschagne found that Moodley had lied when claiming that he killed Leigh where her body was found, that he had acted with the aid of accomplices, that the state had proved that Leigh’s body had been kept in a cold storage facility and dumped shortly before it was found, and that Moodley was not remorseful.
“But today Donovan told the full and true story. I watched him break down and cry. He expressed his condolences to Leigh in heaven, to her family, to society and to her father. For the first time he could appear at his hearing as just Donovan the offender,” Razak said.
Razak said Moodley had finally admitted to having kept Leigh’s body in another location, as was proved, but which he previously denied.
Today Donovan told the parole board how he killed the lady, Leigh, and how he had kept her body in a manhole in a swampy area. He then later placed her in an area where people were cutting grass so it would be found.
— Moodley’s lawyer Mohammed Yusuf Razak
In the years after his conviction Moodley has given different versions of what happened — eventually approaching the Constitutional Court for a retrial, claiming he was the real victim who had been forced by armed men to perpetrate the kidnapping and murder and forced to plead guilty under threats that his family would be murdered.
“Today Donovan told the parole board how he killed the lady, Leigh, and how he had kept her body in a manhole in a swampy area. He then later placed her in an area where people were cutting grass so it would be found,” said Razak.
Tania Koen, part of the legal team representing Leigh Matthews’ family, was at Leeuwkop Prison on Monday when Moodley’s third parole hearing took place. He has had two previous hearings, both of which recommended that he not be released.
However, he appealed the decisions in court, arguing that correct processes had not been followed and that one of the board members had fallen asleep during the second hearing, and therefore could not have applied his mind properly.
Johannesburg highcourt judge Stuart Wilson found in Moodley’s favour and ordered that an entire new parole board be put together for a third hearing. Leigh’s parents Rob and Sharon Matthews did not attend the hearing, having found the first two hearings gruelling and traumatic and were not ready to face the man who killed their daughter again.
“We are concerned by this recommendation as we believe it was taken on incomplete information that did not factor in Moodley’s entire prison record and history,” Rob Matthews told TimesLIVE Premium after Koen informed of the parole board’s recommendation.
Koen, who was part of the Matthews’ legal team, said she had given the board the family’s written representations on the matter and was “surprised and shocked” by their decision.
“We are worried that the board was not fully informed, as the prison record put in front of them was for only the past 18 months. It seems that the entire history going back more than 19 years was not given to them,” Koen said.
It has previously been declared in court that Moodley had several run-ins with prison authorities. He was caught in possession of cellphones, caught trying to buy a firearm, and he accused Rob Matthews of having orchestrated an attempted hit on him in prison, claiming he had managed to fight off his alleged assassins.
“When the board was told that Mr Moodley had been extremely remorseful after the murder and that he had even lost weight, I asked how this could have been the case when he had taken the R50,000, repaired his Ducati motorbike, bought a diamond ring for his girlfriend and then hired a yacht to take her out and propose. How sad and remorseful could he possibly have been doing that?” Koen said.
The parole board decision will go through other processes before it is taken to correctional services minister Pieter Groenewald for a final decision.
“It is important to highlight that the parole process for offenders serving life sentences follows several distinct phases. The matter is first assessed by the case management committee, followed by the correctional supervision and the parole board. Thereafter, recommendations are referred to the national council for correctional services, before the final decision which rests with the minister,” said department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.
Razak said he and Moodley were elated, and “though Mr Groenewald is not one to release people easily, we believe he will abide by the board’s decision”.
Koen said she was disappointed that the parole board had not been fully informed of Moodley’s many different versions of events, as well as the limited prison history they were given.
She noted that a previous psychologist’s report on Moodley, which declared him to be remorseful and fit for release, had been found to be inaccurate by the Health Professions Council of South Africa. The correctional services doctor who wrote it was fined R10,000 and ordered to undergo further training.
Moodley’s attorney, however, disagreed with Koen’s assertion. He said it is incorrect that only the profile from the Johannesburg Management Area was used.
“What happened was that all the previous documents formed part of the profile and were covered by new assessments conducted by a team of three social workers and two psychologists at the Leeuwkop Management Area,” Razak said.
He added that a court order had already directed that Moodley ought to have had a parole hearing in March 2024.
“In effect, thedepartment only convened the hearing in September 2025 after subjecting him to an extensive process with psychologists and social workers. In hindsight, this delay has proved to be a blessing in disguise, because he was comprehensively reassessed. All the previous reports, together with the new ones, now form part of his Case Management Committee file — a profile of an offender compiled within the prison system. In Mr Moodley’s case, that file runs to more than 500 pages,” he said.
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