SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki announced on Thursday the institution of an ”urgent” commission of inquiry into corruption in prisons. ”Prisons are places where you lock up criminals that you catch and seek to rehabilitate, but some of them remain crooks to an extent that they congregate with warders, turning prisons into headquarters for crime,” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting. ”We decided to institute an urgent commission of inquiry to investigate everything and clean up the management of prisons and (their) personnel.” Mbeki said the cabinet had discussed reports that some warders accepted bribes from prisoners and organised escapes. – AFP
Thursday 26, 2001