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The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has officially benched seven prison officials at the infamous, privately-run G4S Mangaung Correctional Centre in the Free State, after an inmate wound up dead – and not for any natural causes.
Mpho Mkhumbeni, who was doing life for murder, met his end on 12 March in the prison hospital, just hours after an unsanctioned late-night ‘visit’ to his cell, where he was pepper-sprayed and worked over by guards like it was open season.
According to DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, the department smelled something rotten after getting a stack of conflicting reports about Mkhumbeni’s death, so they kicked off a full-throttle investigation, The Citizen reported.
Nxumalo said one of the so-called dedicated search (DST) team members pointed fingers at Mkhumbeni and his cellmates for swiping R800, which he’d carelessly left behind in the chaos of the raid and then came back crying foul.
“During a return visit, the four inmates in the cell were interrogated, allegedly assaulted, and tortured over the missing money. These claims were initially denied by the DST officials and the contractor.
“A sanctioned post-mortem examination concluded that inmate Mkhumbeni’s death was unnatural, caused by complications from pepper spray exposure and blunt force trauma, resulting in a formal classification of the case as murder,” Nxumalo said.
With the paper trail and bruises stacking up, Nxumalo confirmed that what started as an inquest by SAPS got an upgrade to a full-blown murder case.
“In essence, senior managers, who were required to provide oversight during and after the search, failed to intervene or report the assault.”
And in case you thought management could plead ignorance, not so fast. Nxumalo wasn’t buying the whole “we saw nothing” excuse.
“Even more concerning, G4S and its employees sought to conceal the truth and obscure the investigation. This is viewed in a serious light as it is tantamount to defeating the ends of justice.”
And while G4S dragged its feet suspending the ground-level crew, upper management apparently kept sipping coffee at their desks, business as usual – until the temp manager pulled the plug.
“While G4S had begun suspending the officials involved, managers remained in active operations. This prompted the temporary manager to take deliberate and bold steps, advising the controller to exercise his authority by withdrawing the operational certificate of the director of operations,” Nxumalo said.
Among the suspended: the operations manager, a security supervisor, and five DST team members, all of whom are now off the roster while the fallout continues.
And let’s not pretend this is Mangaung’s first trip to the hall of shame. Nxumalo pointed out that the place has been under the microscope ever since the Thabo Bester circus – a jailbreak saga so wild it you almost can’t believe it.
Bester, dubbed the “Facebook Rapist,” pulled off a Houdini-level escape back in May 2022, only for the world to find out in 2023 that he’d faked his death with more than a little help from inside the prison walls.
Now DCS is in the middle of trying to kill off its 22-year contract with Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC), the same folks who handed G4S the keys to the kingdom.
In the meantime, Nxumalo says the temp manager’s got eyes on everything, working overtime to patch the holes before the next scandal slips through.
[Source: The Citizen]
