On 16 and 17 April private security multinational G4S and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) will appear at the High Court in Pretoria. On that day a judge will rule on the termination of the Mangaung prison contract, announced by the minister of correctional services, Ronald Lamola in May 2023. He decided to end the contract because of the Bester escape. G4S is part of a group of shareholders, Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC). BCC has claimed in parliament it has a ‘good track record’ at Mangaung prison. It will most probably make the same claim before the Pretoria High Court this Tuesday.
However, this ‘good’ track record only exists on paper. Because the accountability mechanisms that provide legal oversight have been intentionally disabled. The governmental supervisory committee that is supposed to adjudicate G4S’s and GEO Group’s contract violations with a view to issuing penalties, has been inactive for a decade if not two. The SA government pays the two private prisons close to R1billion a month. Mangaung prison has been taken over by the state twice (in 2013 and again in 2023) because the situation was so out of control. However, since 2001 only four penalties have been imposed, totaling R750k. Then there is a 2005 agreement, signed by G4S, GEO Group and DCS: “breach of policies and procedures cannot constitute a breach of contract and give rise to penalties”. What are these policies and procedures? For example, policies around the use of excessive force or unnatural deaths.
Thus, from the very beginning, the South African government shielded the two multinationals running private prisons in the country, from liability for human rights violations, such as torture and forced medication with anti-psychotic drugs. There have been countless human rights violations taking place at Mangaung prison that should have been penalized yet have not been recorded or addressed.
Exclusive Mediators has documented and recorded the following issues that are still not resolved and need to be addressed yet DCS and G4S are both turning a blind eye!
For example, according to a leaked 2021 DCS report about Mangaung prison:
- There were 217 occurrences of unplanned use of force;
- 40% of all violent incidents in the Free State and the Northern Cape (with 46 prisons) emanated from Mangaung prison.
- Inmates were tortured by being undressed and made to lie on steel beds before water is poured on them and they are electrocuted
- 20 roof climbings; 23 attempted roof climbings;
- 3 unnatural deaths.
- Offenders had a lot of medication in their possession, leading to several incidents of over-dosage.
- 3 cells at the Broadway unit were not covered by surveillance cameras.
- The 2021 DCS report also references “Gupta Street”, a smuggling network Bester is alleged to have operated in. The report flags that officials and prisoners worked together in “Gupta Street” to smuggle in contraband.
The leaked DCS documents were referenced in an investigative article that was due to be published in the Sunday Times by Ruth Hopkins. G4S phoned the editor in chief and stopped the publication of said article. The editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times, Sthembiso Msomi, did what G4S asked him to do. Without any explanation or consultation he removed the article – that had gone through an extensive factchecking process – from the website. Exclusive Mediators can provide journalists with a copy of Hopkins’ article.
