Following the Hollywood-style breakout by “Facebook Rapist” Thabo Bester, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has suggested that it will not be renewing its contract with G4S to operate Mangaung Prison.
In his response to EFF MP Yoliswa Yako in front of the Parliament, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Ramola made this statement.
After the country discovered that Bester had fled, who was purported to have perished in a mysterious fire inside the prison, Yako began to wonder.
In accordance with a deal with the DCS, G4S was a part of a group that consented to run Mangaung Prison for a period of 25 years.
The contract between the government and the multinational private security company was expected to run until June 30, 2026.
In his reply, Lamola also said the department would also not be renewing its contract with the South African Custodial Services, which managed the Kutama Sinthumile Correctional Centre in Makhado, Limpopo.
That contract will end on February 15, 2027.
“The department has commenced with the process of taking them over once the contracts come to an end,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has criticized the government for outsourcing its responsibilities to private entities.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the union was of the “firm view” this escape, and multiple other misconducts and abuses reported over the years, were mainly a consequence of the DCS having outsourced the functions of the state’s security to foreign-owned companies, whose sole preoccupation was profit maximization as opposed to the core mandate of rehabilitating inmates.
Police said a case of murder had been opened after it emerged that the person who was thought to Bester in the prison may have been killed during the bold escape.
The inmate, who remains unknown, was killed by blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy confirmed.
Police are still on the hunt for Bester, who had been serving a life sentence for murder and rape, before his bold prison nearly a year ago.
Source | IOL
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