Prisons 'not accountable'

2009-11-11 17:03

Cape Town - The correctional services department has a deeply ingrained culture of non-accountability and non-compliance, Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Wednesday.

"The truth of the matter is the organisational culture in the department of correctional services is of non-accountability," she told members of Parliament's portfolio committee on correctional services.

"It is very difficult to get people to provide you with information. It is a battle I don't know why. People just find it difficult to give simple things such as statistics, finances of the department. It is just a culture that is there."

"When people have to account they just don't understand why they have to account."

Frustration

Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs of her frustration with the department during a violent hostage drama at a prison in Bloemfontein last week. She had been unable to get information on the crisis from her officials.

"You have a hostage drama. Certain things have to be done. The drama goes on and on and on. You want accountability from head office. You want to know on a regular basis what is going on - to be fed with information."

"But they themselves don't have information, because the person responsible for corrections in the region is one who is supposed to be in control of that situation."

"So they don't feel as though they have to account to you what is happening. Even at a time when I felt negotiations were reaching a very critical stage and perhaps you had to take a decision to storm the place at some point."

She said the officials had gone home and had "a peaceful sleep" as the police task force arrived and prepared for a dawn raid on the prison.

"They had a peaceful sleep. They were not worried about what was going on."

Responsibility

"In their minds it is the responsibility of person heading corrections in a region who should take that responsibility."

"You would have expected that in a such a situation, when the lives of people are in danger, your CDC (chief deputy commissioner) leaves everything, flies to Bloemfontein, is on site and works with police to command that operation."

A group of 10 inmates at Mangaung Correctional Centre outside Bloemfontein took three prison employees hostage last Monday afternoon.

The prisoners had set fire to their cells and later barricaded themselves in the exercise area, where they held three warders hostage. The police's task force freed the hostages around 05:00 on Tuesday. No one was seriously injured.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the event was a "stark reminder" of how the department was structured.

"Sometimes you get irritable with CDCs at head office, but when you engage with them, they are like 'well, we are helpless'. But when you interact with regional commissioners they will tell you they don't feel the support of top managers."

"The lines of accountability in my view are very blurred."

- SAPA