Cape Town - Parliamentarians described a report by security company G4S on the escape of prisoner Thabo Bester from the Mangaung prison as a “white wash” and accused the company of not taking any responsibility.
The directors of the company appeared before the justice and correctional services portfolio on Wednesday to account on the circumstances that lead to Bester’s escape.
The company failed to appear before the committee last week and asked to be summoned after the Easter weekend.
Briefing the committee, Mangaung Correctional Centre head Joseph Monyante said Bester made an application requesting to be transferred to a single cell for his own safety on April 30, 2022.
Monyante said a fire was discovered in Bester’s single cell at 4am on May 3 and it was extinguished by prison personnel.
A doctor, who arrived about an hour later, certified the death of Bester.
Monyante said the prison personnel had raised concerns of a smell of petrol emanating from Bester’s possessions on May 4 and the police returned to inspect the deceased’s possessions.
MPs heard that a laptop and cellphone were found in the isolation cell Bester was moved to.
G4S regional commercial director for Africa, Cobus Groenewoud, said the company co-operated fully with the SAPS and the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (Jics).
Groenewoud said the SAPS, which initially probed suicide but later a murder, opened an investigation into an escape in January.
It was only in February this year that Jics informed them of its suspicions that Bester had escaped, he said.
Groenewoud told the MPs that G4S’s internal investigation found that the CCTV system was fully operational, except for the cameras in the Broadway unit, where Bester was held, and those in the administrative building.
“Video cameras for these buildings, the administrative building and Broadway, function on the same circuit.
“But they were not recording footage during the period 7.38pm on May 2 to 4.11am on May 3, 2022.”
He also said two Central Control Room officials failed to follow clearly established policies and procedures.
The onsite night duty supervisor, Senohe Matsoara, who appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Tuesday along with Zolile Sekeleni, also failed to follow clear and well-established policies and procedures, he said.
“This person failed to complete inspection rounds.
“He failed to attend to incidents on time, and directed staff to insignificant tasks,” Groenwoud said.
He said the supervisor ignored a call to attend to a report of smoke in Broadway cell 35 where Bester was housed.
Groenewoud also revealed that there was distant CCTV footage that showed two unidentified figures running towards the administrative building, where CCTV cameras were temporarily not recording.
“We were unable to identify whether the two individuals are prison officials or whether they were inmates.
“The video footage and information were shared with the DCS, SAPS and Jics between from as early as May 2022 until October 2022 to support their respective investigations.”
Groenewoud indicated that three employees, including Matsoara, were suspended and subsequently dismissed.
But the MPs were not impressed by the presentation made by G4S.
ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng said what the company provided was public knowledge and some of the information was contradictory.
“The report is a whitewash. They exonerate themselves,” Ramolobeng said.
“There are a number of security lapses that are glaring and unaccounted for. There seems to be no management oversight on the whole operations of the centre,” she said.
ANC MP Xola Nqola noted discrepancies in the times of the outbreak of the fire at the prison, which has no smoke detectors.
“You are a private company in a public-private partnership with the state that is dishonest and came to deliberately mislead Parliament,” Nqola said.
In a grilling, DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach said G4S did not acknowledge responsibility other than informing MPs of following correct processes and co-operating with a variety of institutions.
“You don’t tell us what happened and what you have done about what happened. There is absolutely no indication in this report that G4S accepts any responsibility,” Breytenbach said.
She also said the document said nothing that was not in the public domain.
“You are evading responsibility here. you duck institutional and systemic issues that point to your culpability in this matter,” Breytenbach said.
Groenewoud denied that they were not accepting any responsibility. “I can’t agree with that. We have disclosed. We dismissed three members. We made information available to the police and the police arrested one of them,” he said.
Cape Times