Cape Town – Efforts were under way to improve South Africa's parole system amid outrage over child murders in the Western Cape allegedly committed by parolees, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the National Assembly on Wednesday.

This after Lamola had called an urgent two-day meeting to address flaws in the system following the arrest of parolees for the murder of three children in the Western Cape this year.

Earlier at the Goodwood Correctional Centre, he said they had established flaws in the management of data before an inmate is released on parole.

Lamola said though in most cases parolees integrated peacefully into society, there had been cases where they not only reoffended, but the crimes they committed while on parole were more though serious than those for which they had been jailed.

"There are rotten potatoes who commit heinous crimes," he said in reply to questions from MPs.