Four correctional officers are expected to appear before the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Wednesday on murder allegations.
According to the police, the officers were taken into custody in relation to the death of an inmate.
In March, police reported the death of Mpho Mkhumbeni, a 37-year-old prisoner at Bloemfontein’s Mangaung correctional facility.
At the time, it was believed that the death was due to natural causes, so an inquest docket was opened for further investigations, according to Bloemfontein police spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele.
“Subsequent post-mortem findings, however, showed that Mr Mkhumbeni’s death was caused by unnatural causes. Investigators changed the inquest docket to a murder probe as a result of these findings.”
Thorough investigation underway
After further investigation by the Bloemspruit police on Tuesday, four warders, aged between 34 and 50, were arrested for the inmate’s alleged murder.
Makhele added that the SA Police Service will conduct a thorough investigation into this case as part of its commitment to seeing that justice is done.
A few years ago, Mangaung Prison, a maximum security facility, made headlines when a convicted murderer and rapist, Thabo Bester, made a daring escape after pretending to have died in a fire in his jail cell.
Bester was apprehended by law enforcement agents in Tanzania in 2023.
Separately, in February, some ex-offenders and inmates at an Eastern Cape women’s prison in East London said that female warders had made them wash their clothes, including their children’s school uniforms, in exchange for cigarettes and fast food.
Department probes assault cases
The South African Human Rights Commission reported that the prisoners said they were made to sell illegal goods, braid their hair, and cook for the warders.
They claimed that refusal resulted in assault and seclusion.
“The inmates claimed they were slapped and assaulted with batons and fists by female warders,” the commission reported.
“They alleged they were targeted by the officers if they reported any wrongdoing in the facility.
“Some inmates claimed that rehabilitation programmes, which were meant to correct their behaviour, were not being done properly.”
Two assault cases are being investigated, according to the Department of Correctional Services, following reports of abuse from the women’s prison.
