Durban - THE KwaZulu-Natal Correctional Services Department is characterised by lawlessness, with employees found guilty or being investigated for transgressions being protected from prosecution, while employees who fight to clean the service find themselves suspended.
This is according to three directors and a deputy director, who blame national commissioner Arthur Fraser for the state of affairs, saying that his leadership style was compromising the department's reputation and credibility.
The officers asked not be named for fear of victimisation.
They said a senior manager at Westville prison was suspended, following the leaking of videos of inmates snorting a white substance and others involved in fights, only to be replaced by an officer who was once found guilty of stealing over R100 000 from the department.
“It was on the recommendation of Fraser that he be brought in here, despite the ongoing case against him,” said one officer.
The official said regional commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele fired the official, charged with theft in 2014, but the man was reinstated three years later.
During the 2014 disciplinary hearing, he was found guilty and dismissed with immediate effect. The department was to recover the money he stole as per the Public Finance Management Act. He was charged with fraud, relating to unlawful subsistence and travel claims totalling about R140000. The official had, however, taken his dismissal for arbitration, which ruled in his favour, and he returned to work on November 19, 2018.
Nxele was himself suspended in January, allegedly for challenging the arbitration ruling, and has taken the matter to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for investigation in respect of the implementation of the arbitration award.
Another officer said the state of affairs in the provincial department was disturbing.
“Just recently, eight positions had to be created for warders who were fired for refusing to perform their duties in Empangeni, in 2015. The duties involved feeding and administering healthcare services to the inmates. Arthur Fraser intervened after taking over in April 2018 and forced the re-employment of those warders. Where is the consistency in maintaining order and good behaviour among employees if you bring back people who were found guilty of misconduct? If the minister does not intervene, this chap (Fraser) will destroy this department in the province,” he said.
Fraser was deployed to correctional services, after serving as director-general of the State Security Agency (SSA), from 2016. A high-level review panel on the SSA, made public in December, painted a negative picture of him.
The report recommended that restructuring and appointments he made be set aside, and that the structure he set up be dismantled.
“Since he took over the Correctional Services Department, elements of nepotism and inconsistent management of discipline are visible. Too many people are implicated in wrongdoing but there is less done to bring them to book. There's a case of an employee in Pietermaritzburg who absconded for 60 days, but nothing has happened to her,” said another officer.
A representative of the Public Service Commission said the commission did not discuss matters with the media until those were resolved.
Correctional Services Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo could not be reached for comment, and Minister Ronald Lamola’s spokesperson, Chris Phiri, asked that questions be sent through email - with no response.