A lack of ”physical evidence” was preventing the arrest of 22 prison warders, filmed allegedly selling drugs, alcohol, a firearm and a juvenile ”sex slave” to Bloemfontein’s Grootvlei prison inmates, police said on Thursday.
”Technically we can’t do anything in terms of the law of the country,” Free State police representative Superintendent Sam Sesing said.
”If we had conducted a waylay inside the prison and caught those people red-handed, it would have been a different thing… As things stand, we have no evidence to prove that the so-called Mandrax tablets shown on the video are not ordinary Disprins, or that the dagga sold to prisoners was nothing but grass.”
The drugs were nowhere to be found after the making of the video, he added.
The SABC on Tuesday screened a video made by inmates of warders allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for a variety of commodities inside Grootvlei prison.
Warders are shown allegedly supplying the inmates with dagga, Mandrax, brandy, and selling a gun for R6 000. One warder was taped allegedly bringing a prisoner a juvenile inmate for sex. The juvenile was fetched for this purpose from the awaiting-trial section.
”What you and I saw was a movie,” Sesing said on Thursday. ”We have nothing to prove any of it.”
He said the investigating officer was in contact with the provincial directorate of public prosecutions ”to see if there is a possibility of acting on the video material”.
So far, the police were investigating only one criminal case in connection with the video. The gun allegedly sold to a prisoner on tape was presented to the organised crime unit shortly afterwards.
Sesing said police were probing a charge of illegal possession of a firearm against the warder.
”Perhaps the investigation will lead to further arrests,” he said.
Sesing said police were also looking at whether the four inmates who filmed the video had made themselves guilty of any offences in doing so.
Meanwhile, the 22 warders implicated had yet to be formally suspended.
Correctional Services head of ministerial services, Alfred Tsetsane, said the warders would receive formal notices before the end of the day. They would have 24 hours to respond.
”The suspensions will become effective directly after the expiry of the deadline — most likely tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. We don’t want to give them any escape by not doing things procedurally correctly.”
Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana ordered the suspensions on Tuesday to allow for further investigations to continue without hindrance.
Skosana also ordered the transfer of the four inmates who made the video to another prison for their own safety. This should be done before the end of the day depending on consultations with the inmates, Tsetsane said.
He denied reports of a clash between Skosana and Correctional Services Commissioner Linda Mti over prison head Tatolo Setlai, who gave permission for the video to be made.
Mti initially said Setlai should be suspended, but Skosana on Wednesday described his actions as commendable.
”The minister and the commissioner are speaking the same language,” Tsetsane said. ”All the commissioner said was that we need to find out whether Mr Setlai violated any internal procedures.”
This would also form part of the departmental investigation.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union on Thursday said it would not provide legal aid for any of its members alleged to have perpetrated criminal acts on the video.
”We will not support anyone who makes himself guilty of corruption,” it said in a statement.
Popcru also rejected statements that it protected corrupt prison warders.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said it had requested a snap debate in the National Assembly on the situation at Grootvlei Prison specifically, and the prison situation in South Africa in general.
”If the footage shown… this week is anything to go by, it is vital that Parliament urgently pays attention to the state of our prisons.” – Sapa