Prison, warders who expect to meet Minister of Justice Kobie Coetsee next week have threatened that if the government does not desegregate the Prisons Service they will reveal all the ”atrocities that have occurred behind prison walls”. Prison warders yesterday told the Weekly Mail that they would reveal alleged assaults and murders.
The warders are demanding the desegregation of the Prison Service, the appointment of black generals, and the sharing of prison facilities by all regardless of race. Warders also demand an increase in salary of R850. Their demand that their families be included in the medical scheme bas been met by the department. The warders would-like their union, the Police and Prison Officers Civil Rights Union (Popcru), recognised by the prison authorities. If their demands are not met, warders will be taking the matter to court. Even though some of Popcru’s members have returned to work, the Prisons Service faces serious shortages and has had to mobilise reinforcements for those prisons affected by the strike.
According to Peter Nquna, chairperson of Popcru, Johannesburg, the union tried to secure pay for suspended workers but failed. Nquna said the situation at many prisons is very tense. Yesterday, members of Popcru took part in a march against privatisation. Other unions in the public sector also participated. Stutterheim Prison in the Eastern Cape has been closed following strike action by 13 warders, Popcru national president Gregory Rockman told the Weekly Mail.
Rockman, who visited the Eastern Cape this ·week to consult with dismissed and suspended Popcru members in the region, said he was told the prison closed last Friday. Thirty-five prisoners and two white warders were transferred to last London’s Fort Glamorgan Prison, he said. He claimed that at Fort GA total of 131 warders at Fort Glamorgan have so far been suspended from their posts without pay, while 39 policemen from Duncan. The battle against eviction could reach the Supreme Court in Cape Town next week.
Lawyers said yesterday they were considering applying for an interdict to prevent members being forcibly removed from their homes, pending a Supreme Court application to have their eviction orders set aside. Athlone attorney Essa Moosa said he wrote this week to the commissioner of prisons in Pretoria, contesting the validity of the eviction orders. He was referred to state attorney LM Gava with whom he consulted yesterday. Late in the afternoon he received a faxed letter in which the Prisons Service denied the orders were invalid and said that unless the warders vacated their homes by 2pm on April 4, another order would be issued – this time by the head of the prison. If this too is ignored, then – in terms of the Prisons Act – prison authorities can physically enter warders’ homes ·and remove them.
”We are consulting counsel and intend bringing an application for an interdict early next week,” Moosa said. The Prisons Service was asked to comment, but no reply bad been received by the time of going to press. Village and King William’s Town were fired last week. Rockman claimed this week that a further 19 warders at Fort Glamorgan had now joined the protest action- ”the last of the black (and so-called coloured) warders”, he said. Dismissed and suspended Popcru members in the East London area would be staging various protest actions from tomorrow, he said.
Rockman said a further nine Pollsmoor employees, who embarked on protest action after the arrest last week of 68 striking warders, had now also been suspended. This brought the number of suspended Pollsmoor employees to 87, he said. Rockman said there had been no word from prison authorities since the strike action began last Wednesday at prisons across the country. But, he said, ”It’s clear they (the Prisons Service) are worried. They don’t know what to do. We’ve got the answer for them: start negotiating with us, listen to our grievances. Then this problem will be solved. It’s as simple as that.”
He said the announcement that black Prisons Service employees would receive medical aid cover for the first time from April 1 was ”a victory for Popcru”. The union has yet to hear from Cape Town’s chief magistrate wheth.er or not he has granted permission for tomorrow’s march on Tuynhuys. Meanwhile, lawyers acting for the union were negotiating in Cape Town yesterday with state attorneys over the fate of 31 Pollsmoor Prison employees who were this week informed they had to vacate their homes on the prison’s grounds. Affected Popcru members have said they will refuse to budge and if forcibly evicted would ”put up tents and become squatters”. – Gaye Davis and Thandeka Qqubule
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
