Correctional Services Urged To Address Issues Of Safety At Facilities

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union Popcru in the Northern Cape has called on the Department of Correctional Services to urgently address issues of safety across the countrys correctional facilities. This comes after a prison official was allegedly attacked by an inmate at the Tswelopele Correctional Center in Kimberley.

The official who was attacked was admitted to hospital and later discharged.

The Tswelopele Correctional Center is not new to incidents of violence. In March 2022, two inmates were killed during a scuffle with officials. The inmates allegedly attacked an officer with padlocks and his colleagues intervened, leading to the inmates deaths.

Popcru Secretary Mbabali Mkhontwana says the department must take measures to protect officials.

"It becomes a concern to us that when there are no preventative measures that the department is not taking since 2022. Now, if we look into personnel, each unit has 240 inmates and officials guarding those inmates its less than 10," says Mkhontwana.