MANGAUNG PRISON WORKING CONDITIONS ‘APPALLING’ – POPCRU

FIASCO: Union cites allegations of victimisation, breaches of labour law, including overcrowding…

By Robert Tlapu

Poor working conditions at Mangaung Correctional Centre – including a small staff overseeing a disproportionately large population of inmates at an overcrowded facility – contributed to factors leading to the escape by Facebook serial rapist and murderer Thabo Bester from the Bloemfontein prison.

This is according to Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) president Zizamele Cebekhulu-Makhaza, who added that the prison was understaffed and overcrowded – with one warder expected to guard 60 inmates per shift.

By international standards, the prisoner-warder ratio should be one prison official to three inmates – a benchmark that was outlined by the SA Human Rights Commission to the Government in its 1998 Report of The National Prisons Project in 1998, whose recommendations have largely been ignored.

 Cebekhulu-Makhaza said, during a recent fact-finding mission at the prison which is run by security firm G4S, POPCRU leadership discovered that Bester was not the first prisoner to have escaped from the facility.

Additionally, POPCRU uncovered poor working conditions at the prison, with just one prison official for every 60 inmates. It further received multiple allegations of victimisation, breaches of labour law, and warnings to prevent employees from speaking out. 

Addressing a media conference in Pretoria yesterday, Cebekhulu-Makhaza said Bester’s escape and weakness in South Africa’s prisons and criminal justice system highlighted Government’s ineffectiveness in monitoring private prisons, with numerous prison staff concerns about serious irregularities within the institutions largely unaddressed.

“Private prison companies are not interested in prisoner rehabilitation, they are only interested in making profits. They are not prepared to employ more people to do the work needed. The department has paid the companies more and more money, and yet is receiving nothing in return,” Cebekhulu-Makhaza.

“Furthermore, G4S is offering no assistance in as far as finding out what happened during the escape, or in solving the problem or assisting in the investigations. They are too focused on keeping the contract intact. Even their responses to the portfolio committee have not assisted, except to continue to conceal secrets”.

POPCRU leader stated that serious questions remained unanswered and that the union would not hesitate to confront the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) if there were no answers following the investigations into the Bester escape matter.

“The process is not transparent, and we want to know how these contracts were awarded. Do private prison companies comply with the laws of the country, including the B-BBEE laws? And if these companies have B-BBEE partners, who are they and why are they keeping quiet?”

Cebekhulu-Makhaza pointed out that the DCS and Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Service must likewise take the blame in the escape for their failure to perform proper oversight on private prisons.

“The spectacle caused by Bester matter is an embarrassment to all stakeholders with a connection to the prison system. We are putting the blame for the escape squarely on the shoulders of Correctional Services, who have a responsibility to perform oversight regarding compliance at private prisons, and to ensure that the laws of this country are being adhered to”.

“But the Portfolio Committee also has a responsibility to perform oversight and they are not exempt from all the blame. How many times did they visit these prisons?

These private prisons did not simply fall from the sky, they were given the nod to be established. They should have picked up that the department was not performing its work as a regulator”, said the disappointed POPCRU leader.

He called on DCS to terminate its contract with G4S immediately for its failure to meet its service delivery obligations, adding that it is the government’s constitutional responsibility to oversee the care of prisoners.

“Private prisons are of no help in South Africa. They must be brought back into the mainstream, which is under the control of DCS. Our wish is for the department to take over management of the prisons, and start running them like a prison and not like a hotel”.

Bester also known as ‘facebook rapist’ was found guilty for raping and robbing two women in 2011 who he lured on Facebook after promising them modelling gigs. In 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and killing his girlfriend model Nomfundo Thyulu.

He was incarcerated at the Bloemfontein facility, where he faked his own death in 2022 before escaping. While on the run for almost a year, he was spotted at Sandton shopping mall with his girlfriend Dr Nandipha Magudumana, who allegedly helped him to escape. The couple was later arrested in Tanzania.

PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

Appearing before the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on April 12, a delegation from G4S was unable to explain the details surrounding Bester’s escape.

The chairperson of the committee, Gratitude Magwanishe, said they needed to get to the bottom of what happened.

Committee member Anthea Ramolobeng said G4S’s presentation lacked details, and was an attempt by G4S to exonerate itself from any responsibility.

“It seems that the case of Bester got out of hand because it is high a profile one. Many other escapes are unaccounted for. Based on the contract with DCS, are you not in breach of contract [with these incidents occurring]?” she asked. Ms Ramolobeng said Bester’s escape appeared to have been carefully orchestrated.

G4S also admitted that it had not conducted a forensic investigation into the escape. It also said that as a Damelin-registered student, Bester was entitled to have access to a personal computer, as per the rules of the facility.  Magwanishe said it would be better if such devices were not equipped with modems.

G4S also informed the committee that, following the escape, three officials were suspended and have since been dismissed.

However, the three are contesting their dismissal at the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

BESTER: BODY IDENTIFIED

SA Police Services (SAPS) confirmed the body that was found burnt beyond recognition inside cell 35 at the Mangaung Correctional Centre, under the guard of G4S, has been identified.

The charred body used as a decoy for the Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester to escape in May last year was found with blunt force trauma.

The identification of the body comes after a direct match was made with the DNA of the biological mother of the deceased, according to police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe.

“The family has been notified by the investigating officer (IO) and no further comment will be provided,” said Mathe.

She said as difficult as this news is, SAPS was pleased to bring closure to the family. Lamola to announce the decision on G4S contract soon.

MANGAUNG

PRISON: G4S

CONTRACT REVIEW

Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola is expected to announce government decision on the contract between the Correctional Services Department and prison management firm G4S. Lamola said the Government had to consider all the implications before terminating any contractual agreements.

“We have read the contract,” Lamola said. “We are seeking legal advice on the contract because if we just act on emotions and become reckless, and just wake up and cancel the contract, the possibility of us government being labelled for the R2 billion remaining for the contract remains very large and high.

“The second thing is not just whether we cancel or not which is a decision we are going to take in regard, we also have to access our capacity to take it over if we cancel because there are about 507 employees, it has got more than 2900 inmates, there are facilities, there are systems all those must be run”

The private security company runs the Mangaung Prison facility in Bloemfontein in a 25-year public-private partnership with the government. The contract is expected to run until 2026. It is understood that the government pays service providers at least R1 billion a year to run the facilities.

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