Port Elizabeth – The Department of Correctional Services says its festive season safety operations will continue at other prisons across the country after the brawl involving inmates and officials at St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth.
On Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Thabang Makwetla and the department's national commissioner, Zach Modise, visited injured officials at a Port Elizabeth hospital.
Speaking hours after a press conference held that day, Makwetla’s spokesperson Ntime Skosana said the department already had stringent security measures in place at other correctional facilities.
“Every year we have Operation Vala, which ensures security is heightened at all our prisons during this time of the year. The St Albans case was an isolated incident which only affected a small part of the prison. But stability has been restored,” Skosana said.
The incident, which took place on Monday morning, is said to have started when 33 inmates attacked officials with sharp objects that included self-made knives.
Thirteen warders were injured, six critically. Three inmates died.
The facility has been placed on lockdown and visiting hours have been restricted until further notice.
Skosana said the prisoners at St Albans told Makwetla they were unhappy about the refusal by the prison to transfer them to other prisons. “Many of them want to be transferred to correctional facilities closer to their loved ones. Other complaints included inconsistent access to phones etc.”
Skosana said the lockdown would be lifted only after investigations had been conducted and concluded and when the department was satisfied that stability had been restored.
In 2013, prisoners went on a rampage at Groenpunt Prison near Deneysville in the Free State, setting fire to the prison’s administrative block, burning their mattresses and bedding, and pelting warders with tiles they broke from the floor. They were protesting against the fact that the head of the prison had allegedly ignored their grievances about the prison’s health services and wouldn’t take rehabilitation programmes seriously.
Two warders were injured.
St Albans, which accommodates 4387 prisoners, is regarded as one of the "big five" correctional centres in the country. The others are Pollsmoor, Kgosi Mampuru II, Durban-Westville and Joburg (Sun City).
Meanwhile, Modise said the department faced a myriad challenges, which include gangsterism, overcrowding and staff shortages at the prisons and that the government was consulting stakeholders to ensure prisons were secure.
Police and Prisoners Civil Rights Union spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the department had always known that about 80 percent of inmates tend to re-offend, and the overcrowding attested to this. He added that the department needed to commit itself to ensure that correctional centres were self-sufficient.
Miles Bhudu, activist and leader of the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights, described the incident as "a sad day", particularly because of the deaths of the three inmates.