The Department of Correctional Services has served the G4S with a notice to terminate its Mangaung Correctional Centre contract.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said the notice was served on the company on Tuesday following consultations with legal advisors.
The contract will cease to operate after a 90-day notice period, said Lamola during the presentation of his department’s annual performance plan to the justice and correctional services committee in parliament.
“The Department of Correctional Services has already resumed with an internal exercise for the takeover process,” Lamola said.
He further told the committee that the department recorded 22 escapes from a total of 143 223 inmate population in the 2021/22 financial year.
“We are the first to acknowledge that one escape at our facilities is one too many,” Lamola said.
“We will redouble our security operations to prevent escapes and deal harshly with officials who fail to adhere to standard operating procedures as the [Department of Correctional Services] national commissioner [Makgothi Thobakgale] has acted yesterday in the Mthatha management area, where there was an escape of two inmates.
“One has been recaptured, and eight officials who were on duty on the date of the escape and did not adhere to standard operating procedures have been suspended.”
The Mangaung Correctional Centre is privately operated by G4S in a 25-year public-private partnership with government.
The contract was set to run until 2026 and it is understood that government pays service providers at least R1-billion a year to privately run the correctional facilities.
The decision to terminate the G4S contract follows the prison escape of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester in May 2022.
Bester, who had faked his death during the escape, was re-arrested with his lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, and a Mozambican national in Tanzania in April.
The trio was about to cross the border into Kenya when the police pounced.
On April 17, the National Prosecution Authority dropped a charge of murder against Magudumana’s father Zolile Sekeleni.
Sekeleni appeared at the Bloemfontein High Court alongside his daughter and two other co-accused and was granted a R10 000 bail. He is accused of playing a pivotal role in Bester’s escape.
At his initial court appearance early in April, Sekeleni faced several charges including murder related to the burnt body found in Bester’s prison following his jail break.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said at the time that after reviewing additional evidence, there was no evidence linking Sekeleni to the murder charge.
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