Cape Town – Two prison warders are expected to appear in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court for doing favours for inmates and receiving bribes in return.
They were arrested by the Hawks on Monday and are expected to be in court this morning on charges relating to corruption.
Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said: “Two prison warders, a warrant officer and a sergeant between the ages of 53 and 45 were today (Monday) arrested by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption investigation team based in Bellville after their morning parade for engaging in hook-ups with inmates in return for privileges, on charges relating to corruption,” she explained.
“The hook-ups were special favours for the inmates and then they got paid, basically for bribes.”
“Their arrest emanates from information received about suspected warders who were receiving money from inmates in January.
“The alleged commission of crime happened between March 2020 to 2021.
“This then led to the matter being reported to the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation team for further probing.”
Hani said the duo is expected to make their first appearance on Tuesday.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) provincial secretary Pat Raolane condemned the alleged actions of the warders.
“Anything of this nature worries us a lot, I don’t have full information, yet but we will never condone such issues because they put the lives of those particular individuals that may be were raped or family members were killed.
“If somebody who has killed your brother is enjoying themselves (in prison), getting cellphones, in due course they are going to end up calling witnesses who may disappear, we can’t accept that.
“I will look into this matter and get the full scope of the case but we don’t promote such things. In Mpumalanga, witnesses were supposed to be in court but failed to show up, they just disappeared and we don’t want that,” he added.
“If people have cellphones in prison, we can only assume that they call witnesses to intimidate them.
“We don’t know what drove the members to do what they did, we don’t know if they were threatened or not, but the investigation will reveal everything.”