Cape Town - Security company G4S failed to appear before the justice and portfolio committee that was meant to be briefed about circumstances around the escape of prisoner Thabo Bester from the Mangaung correctional centre last year.
Instead, the company sent a letter to the committee asking to be summoned and that it appears under parliamentary privilege after the Easter Weekend.
This sparked outrage from MPs, with some saying their action was suggesting that G4S, which manages the private prison, has something to hide.
They felt disrespected when it emerged that the company had sent lawyers to attend the meeting proceedings.
Committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said the security company was invited via the Department of Correctional Services along with the department and Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons.
Magwanishe said there was an undertaking from the company to attend the meeting, but they sent a letter to him on Monday afternoon, notifying him of their non-attendance.
He noted with concern that the invitation to attend the meeting was made last week, but G4S elected to respond yesterday afternoon.
Magwanishe said the committee’s sequencing of presentations was that G4S would be first, followed by the DCS, Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services and SAPS.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach said she was absolutely outraged that G4S could send such a letter and was now demanding to be summoned in order to obtain some “flimsy protection”.
“It is very clear that they have something to hide. If they had nothing to hide, they would have been here,” she said.
“The absolute contempt with which they have operated leaves me outraged that I have trouble containing it,” Breytenbach said before proposing that the meeting be postponed until G4S was summoned as they asked and be the first to make a presentation.
ACDP chief whip Steve Swart was equally outraged that G4S decided not to come to the meeting.
“How dare they say they are not attending today, and what do they have to hide?” Swart asked.
He noted that the company talked about their contractual obligation, but he questioned how the rape survivors who were out there and never advised about his escape.
“We will summons them, but we want to send a message very clearly that we are resolute and determined to get to the bottom of this, no matter how long it takes.
“This is a beginning of the deep look into what went on,” Swart said before agreeing that the meeting be postponed.
ANC MP Nomathemba Maseko-Jele said the committee should take the issue very seriously.
“I agree with my colleagues that there is no way we can continue with this meeting without G4S starting to give us information,” Maseko-Jele said.
Magwanishe said they would take G4S head-on when they eventually attend the meeting.
“They were properly invited, and they elected not to do so,” he said.
Magwanishe said they would ask National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to issue a summons for G4S.
“It should not take any longer. South Africans are waiting for an explanation,” he said.
Cape Times