Swellendam - A Swellendam pastor is to appear in the Swellendam Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with trying to smuggle drugs into a prison.
The man was among a group of clergymen granted access to Buffeljags Correctional Centre in Swellendam to perform spiritual rehabilitation of prisoners on Saturday. Correctional Services spokesman Simphiwe Xako said when the pastor was searched at the gate, prison officials alerted police who arrested him.
It will be the State’s case he was in possession of 57g of dagga, Mandrax tablets and six sachets of tik concealed around his private parts, Xako said.
He said the man was a registered pastor and worked with the department on a “daily basis”. He was at the prison to perform a ritual.
Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said the man would be charged with possession of drugs.
Regional correctional services commissioner Delekile Klaas praised prison officials. He said he was shocked at the charge.
”The smuggling of illegal substances into our centres reverses all our good work in the drive to fight crime and in ensuring that South Africans are and do feel safe,” Klaas said.
In March, a prison warder in Goodwood was arrested for possession of 50 mandrax tablets.
Meanwhile, police in Mitchells Plain arrested 148 people for the illegal possession of drugs during the operation last week (from Monday to Sunday).
They confiscated 1 008 heroin units, 279 units of tik, 94 Mandrax tablets and dagga after receiving tip-offs from residents.
Kinana said the successes showed there was good co-operation between the communities and the police.
Cape Times