Cape Town — Correctional Services raided the Goodwood prison this week, in response to a viral video where inmates bragged about living a comfortable life behind bars.
Correctional Services National Commissioner, Makgothi Thobakgale, led the raid in search for contraband (objects not allowed in prison) including knives, cellphones, and modems. Thobakgale said the contraband is often smuggled in when the prisoners leave to attend their court cases, he told Newzroom Afrika.
He said that the issue of smuggling is nothing new and is a perennial problem in their operations daily.
“Some of these [items] are swallowed; they are kept in the stomachs or inside the body. Now for us to be able to get to identify those we have to use body scanners. We have few of those obviously because they are very expensive so we do our level best,” he said.
He added that, in some instances, prison officials also smuggle the items in for the names and he said 66 officials have been dismissed for these transgressions.
Correctional Services National Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale is leading a raid at the Goodwood Prison in Cape Town this morning. It’s in response to a viral video declaring a lavish lifestyle behind bars. Newzroom Afrika’s @Nasiphi_Same has more.
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The correctional services commissioner said these objects put inmates and officials in danger.
“Officials get stabbed, attacked daily, because of the prevalence of such. So, us being here today is just to check the level of cleanliness of the facility from contrabands.”
Searches were conducted last Friday and a few more times since then. They are conducted at various times of the day, to avoid inmates hiding the items elsewhere.
“We will open a cell, we’ll take inmates to a private space where we will do the body searches, because as I’ve indicated some of these items are kept inside the body. After that they will then have to go to their beds; they pick up their belongings and they get out so we can get in and search,” he said.
The raid comes after a prisoner named Bornface Banks posted a video earlier this week where he boasted about living comfortably in prison, enjoying three meals a day, and getting free clothes and electricity.
“Hello haters, you put us in prison and you think we are suffering? No, my brother, we are doing extremely fine, look how happy we are. We are not paying rent, we are not buying electricity, we don’t cook food, they cook for us,” he said.
According to TimesLIVE, Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Banks was moved to a maximum-security prison after the video went viral.
“This is something we don’t take lightly; it’s something that we have attended to. We have moved that inmate to a maximum-security centre where he’ll probably be given an education on what a correctional facility is,” Nxumalo said.
He added that Banks has been in and out of the facility and sees nothing wrong with what he has done, with his purpose to make a mockery of the correctional services. He said prisons are bound to provide necessities to inmates, but it cannot be viewed as something to brag about.
Nxumalo was shocked to discover the number of followers Banks had on his TikTok page and the views he got for his video. He said the department has acknowledged the issue of smuggling cellphones but was working on a system that would stop cellphones from having connectivity in prison.
“We are closer to finalising the development of a technology that will make those mobile phones inoperable in our centres. If we can get approval for that solution, it would help us because if you don’t have a signal, you won’t be able to use a cellphone. Some people take it lightly, but a lot of things can go wrong when an inmate has a phone.”
Picture: Pixabay
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
