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The Acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Makgothi Thobakgale, has welcomed the sentence imposed on a Correctional Officer for helping an inmate escape.
He said last week, Correctional Officer, Stephen Somo, who was stationed at Johannesburg Correctional Facility, was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Johannesburg Regional Court for aiding an escape.
Thobakgale said he hoped the prison sentence would send a message to other Correctional Officers that this conduct would not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, the Acting Correctional Services Commissioner also lamented the recent escapes from Malmesbury Correctional Centre on 13 April and another break-out in Barberton a day later.
“Two of the three remand detainees who escaped from Malmesbury, Alexander Pieters and Riduwaan Herman, have been re-arrested and a third detainee, Juneal Jacobs, is still at
large. Amos Shabangu Mashaba who escaped from Barberton is also still at large. We will continue to search for the two inmates until they are re-arrested and placed in lawful
custody,” Thobakgale said.
“I addressed all DCS Regional (Provincial) Commissioners as well as Area (District) Commissioners across the country and reiterated that this state of affairs is unacceptable and must be urgently addressed,” he said.
"The safety, and well-being, of our correctional officials, inmates, and citizens cannot be compromised.”
He said procedural security measures such as regular patrols, frequent searches of cells and offenders, control over objects sent into correctional centres, searches of visitors as well as incident management are clearly regulated, and the applicable procedures clearly spell out the circumstances
Thobakgale said in the last financial year, 94 Correctional Services officials were dismissed following disciplinary action.
