Cape Town - Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said the department was ready to take over Mangaung prison as it was cutting ties with the G4S security firm.
The department decided to part ways with G4S after the fallout following the Thabo Bester escape.
But political parties accused the department of failing to crack down on corruption, saying the escape of Bester showed the depths of corruption in the country’s prisons.
Lamola, who was tabling his Budget vote speech in Parliament on Thursday, said officials were ready for the takeover of the Mangaung correctional centre.
“The G4S contract was a pilot project with the Mangaung correctional facility. There is a positive in this contract and the positive is that they are leaving us with the infrastructure. It is not correct that we are going to look for new infrastructure. There is infrastructure that can take 2 900 inmates. That is a positive.
“We can’t throw the baby with the bath water. What we need to deal with now is how we operationalise the centre, who must be employed, vetting and all that,” said Lamola.
But opposition parties were still up in arms over the manner in which Bester escaped.
Some of the former officials of G4S have been charged with the Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana matter.
The parties said it was tragic that Bester had to use the body of Katlego Bereng as a decoy.
EFF member Yoliswa Yako said the Bester escape showed how deep the levels of corruption in prison were.
“Thabo Bester was classified as dead and the role of those tasked with guarding him facilitated his escape. A life was lost in Mangaung and his body was criminally used to let a rapist and murderer out of jail,” said Yako.
Steve Swart of the ACDP said the Department of Correctional Services had let South Africa down on this matter.
He said the department, as early as May last year that Bester had escaped, did not alert his victims that he was loose on the streets.
“Imagine if rape victims had seen Bester walking about in public when he was supposed to be in prison serving a sentence. The lack of action from May last year to March this year placed the lives of victims at risk,” said Swart.
Glynnis Breytenbach of the DA said the escape by Bester was brazen given the lengths he went to in hatching the plan and executing it with the help of some of the former employees at G4S.
She said the escape showed the failure of the criminal justice system.