By Chimaimba Banda, Themba wa Sepotokele and David Matsena
Explosive video footage detailing drug and arms smuggling and sex abuse of juveniles in a Bloemfontein jail has been handed to the Jali commission of inquiry into prisons corruption.
Hours after Grootvlei Prison head Director Totolo Setlai - who sanctioned the video that had been secretly recorded by four medium-security inmates - handed it over to the Jali commission on Tuesday, shocking excerpts were screened on SABC3's Special Assignment.
Setlai, who was reportedly desperate to expose corruption in his prison, now faces suspension.
The footage shows how easy it is for prisoners to buy dagga, Mandrax, alcohol and juvenile prisoners for sex from warders.
One excerpt showed a warder, who is already facing charges for smuggling dagga and brandy into the prison, selling a pistol to a double murderer for R6 000. The warder had been told it was to be used in an escape attempt.
Other footage showed a warder bringing a juvenile prisoner to an inmate for sex. The warder was paid R25 and the juvenile R10 for the sex. The older inmate remarked afterwards: "I pay for sex, but what can I do?"
The video also showed prisoners buying Mandrax and dagga from warders, and warders selling stolen prison food to - and sharing it with - prisoners and drinking with inmates.
A warder who made a half-hearted threat to arrest prisoners for buying and selling dagga in a cell was told freely: "You are a bandit, you are not a warder" and then he was offered R10 as a gift by the prisoners.
He was then told by the prisoner who offered him the cash: "I don't want shit from you."
The prisoners who recorded the two-hour footage said on camera: "The warders in this prison, you can send them to get anything."
None of the warders implicated and named in the video have been suspended from their posts.
Commission investigators have taken several affidavits from juveniles at the prison.
Following the discovery of the video, one of the prisoners involved in the filming was severely assaulted and had to be taken to hospital. On the same day, a prisoner was caught with poison, apparently supplied by a warder, meant to kill the injured prisoner.
One of the warders, who faces charges of conspiracy to murder following the discovery of the poison, has been removed from the jail and is working outside the prison walls.
According to Special Assignment, Setlai has been threatened with suspension because he allowed the filming of the video.
Themba Rubushe, deputy commissioner in the Department of Correctional Services, said on Tuesday night that the Jali commission had ordered Setlai's department not to take any action against anyone until the video had been investigated by the commission.
Rubushe conceded that the video "hits you in your face - it is shocking", but he added that the authorities had always known there was something rotten in the prisons and that the footage was "the stench" that was expected.
In a panel discussion after the show, Correctional Services commissioner Linda Mti said a prison "is not Hollywood", and that action would be taken against Setlai and the prisoners who had secretly filmed corruption in the prison.
"The manifestation of corruption continues in prisons, and the department will co-operate with the media in exposing elements of corruption in prisons.
"Firstly, the authenticity of the video must be verified. It is true that 50 percent of warders are corrupt. However, we also have honourable men and women who do their work under extremely difficult conditions of overcrowding and low pay."
Mti added that action would be taken against Setlai because he had sanctioned the recording to the footage.
"We are not in the film production industry. He (Setlai) was aware of that for four months. This needs to be investigated because the people filming had to ask for permission. One is not going to sensationalise things," Mti said.
SA Prisoners for Human Rights Organisation president Golden Miles Bhudu said: "These things are normal in our prisons and they happen all the time. That video is a true reflection of what happens in prisons. We have corrupt warders. We need to review mechanisms to prohibit corruption."
Bhudu said prisoners who blow the whistle on corruption were either transferred, intimidated, isolated or had their release dates prolonged. Prisoners who exposed corruption must be congratulated, he added.
Democratic Alliance correctional services spokesperson Pauline Cupido said: "The Jali commission must be given an opportunity to complete their investigations. As the DA, we are saying that the warders who were shown on TV must be dismissed immediately."
Cupido added that the whistle-blowers should be protected as a matter of urgency.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said: "Everyone would agree that the revelations are shocking. As the ANC, we don't have more words to say but that action should be taken against these warders."