Cape Town — Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald has confirmed that six officials from the Goodwood Correctional Centre in Cape Town are facing disciplinary action due to poor supervision.
The disciplinary action comes after an inmate at the facility, Bornface Banks, uploaded a TikTok video featuring other inmates, bragging about living a “soft life” at the prison.
“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, ” he said.
Soft life in SA prison??🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/8fQpB7tK0S
— MDN NEWS (@MDNnewss) July 15, 2024
In a statement, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said it had identified six officials who were alleged to have been involved in smuggling the cellphone into the prison.
During a media briefing, Groenewald said it was clear that officials were involved.
“After an investigation, a total of six officials were identified for disciplinary actions to be instituted against them. An investigation was conducted and completed. The area commissioner of Goodwood took a decision…to institute the disciplinary action,” Groenewald said.
“The status at the moment is that all six are formally charged. Two of the six are finalised and four are still in process.”
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has instituted disciplinary action against officials who were alleged to have been involved in the use of cellphones at a Western Cape correctional facility. https://t.co/afZVAOIzH0
— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) August 29, 2024
Groenewald said the department is looking at ways to block signals are prisons but this comes with its challenges. He said the process was not that simple as many facilities are close to highways and communities which would impact the people in that area, it cannot be defined to the centre.
He said they were looking at sophisticated technology to make it more focussed but it would prove costly.
The minister added that the department was going to crack down on errant officials in the department.
“The first step to deal with corruption is to ensure that there are consequences for those officials who transgress. Consequence management is essential if you want to eradicate corruption,” he said.
“Most of the correctional services officials are honest, hardworking people with integrity but we will have to work together to identify the rotten apples and disciplinary steps must be taken against them,” Groenewald concluded.
The incident at the Goodwood Correctional Facility led to a raid of the prison, where contraband such as cellphones, knives, and modems were retrieved.
The success of that raid led to further raids at the Sun City Correctional Facility in Johannesburg and the Westville Correctional Centre in Durban, where the department seized expensive contraband including cellphones, TVs, wi-fi routers and PlayStation consoles in both raids.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
