The maximum security prison from which Thabo Bester escaped, Mangaung Correctional Centre, is owned by BCC, and the multinational security company G4S owns 20% of BCC while also being the main subcontractor in charge of operating the prison. G4S has been running the prison since 2001.
Initially, the contract between DCS and BCC was supposed to end in 2026, but in May DCS gave BCC a 90-day termination notice, indicating that it would take over the prison at the end of July. Just less than a week before the end of the 90-day notice period, BCC formally challenged the termination.
The Department of Correctional Services has revealed that it will be entering into a mediation process with BCC, which is meant to last until the end of August. If the dispute is not resolved by then, the parties will go to court.
Talking to a couple of employees from the Mangaung Correctional Centre who asked to remain anonymous, GroundUp found out that one of them has been working at Mangaung Prison for three years and said the week after Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola announced the cancellation of the contract, the workers started questioning G4S about their employment.
Both he and his wife are employed by G4S and they support three children and a grandmother. He said he is paid R17,000 a month before deductions. He also expressed how the uncertainty has left him with severe anxiety, and that has made it difficult to concentrate on work. He said the high unemployment rate in the country was scary.
“Most of the people, if not all of us, just feel like, why can’t DCS take over? When you wake up with these uncertainties it’s nerve-wracking because you wake up wondering what is going to happen today,” he added.
Another employee, who has been with G4S at Mangaung prison for almost a decade, said he was worried that they would not get paid out overtime, leave days owed and bonus, and worried about what will become of the provident fund as he supports his wife and four children.
“The last time we got feedback from Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) was on 31 May, and they just said they are going to be in discussion with G4S and DCS … Nobody has come back to us or reached out to us saying we’re going to have a job at the end of the month. Everyone is just quiet,” he said.
He also mentioned that they still have contracts with G4S and pay POPCRU every month but they haven’t said anything to them, and around 500 workers are going to be affected.
Richard Mamabolo who is POPCRU spokesperson revealed to MyBroadBand that they are aware that BCC had appealed the DCS cancellation, and they are awaiting the outcome of the appeal before they can comment.
