SA LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO JAIL CORRUPTION

A COMMISSION of inquiry appointed by South African President Thabo Mbeki to probe corruption and violence in the country’s prisons began hearing evidence in Durban on Monday. A representative said it will focus first on three prisons in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where a senior prisons official was shot dead by a colleague in 1999 and another murdered in 2001 after he began investigating corruption in the department of correctional services. Mbeki appointed the commission in July last year to investigate graft within the department itself and at eight prisons across the country. He did so following an appeal by Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana after there had been reports that warders in some prisons accepted bribes from prisoners and organised escapes. – AFP