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A Correctional Services official at St Albans prison outside Port Elizabeth has been arrested while another faces suspension after they were found trying to smuggle unauthorised items in the facility.
Correcectional Services spokesperson, Zama Feni, says the discovery was made when the officials were searched when they reported for duty on Friday morning.
He says one correctional official was found two envelopes of dagga and 100 mandrax tablets as well as a cellphone and a cellphone charger.
"Police were called and arrested the official who was found with a packet of mandrax and dagga for purposes of opening a criminal case against him," said Feni.
He says the other official was found with two cellphones.
Feni says "the Department will serve the suspects with letters of contemplation to suspend whilst conducting our own internal investigation into the incident."
Regional Commissioner Nkosinati Breakfast commended the security officials for this brilliant breakthrough.
"It's so disappointing that our very own officials who are supposed to be providing proper security services into our facilities are suspects in an incident of this nature. We shall apply all the necessary disciplinary procedures that will serve as a lesson to any prospective transgressor of our security measures," said Mr Breakfast.
"This discovery confirms our suspicions that some bad elements within our system are hell-bent on smuggling unauthorized items into the cells; they corrupt offenders instead of correcting them as they were employed to do so.
"Once the disciplinary processes have been completed, we are going to name and shame the transgressors,' he said.
He further called for vigilance on every security official in all correctional facilities, "all security officials must be thoroughly searched on a daily basis - there is a likelihood that this discovery might be the tip of an iceberg."
"We search the cells as often as we could, it is so disgusting to discover the same unauthorized items inside our cells time and again; we shall work to ensure that all our officials who are reversing our strict security measures are flushed out of our system - they don't deserve to be part of our team."
