Suspended prison chief Tatolo Setlai will face 20 criminal charges when his trial starts in November in the Bloemfontein Regional Court, the prosecutor said on Monday.
Hannes van der Walt said Setlai would be prosecuted on three counts of corruption and 17 of contravening the Correctional Services Act.
Magistrate JB Koekemoer postponed the case on Monday to November 25 for the trial to begin. He extended Setlai’s bail of R4 000.
Officers from the Special Investigating Unit and the police’s commercial crimes unit arrested Setlai in January in his office at the Grootvlei prison outside Bloemfontein.
The arrest was for alleged corruption involving more than R10 000. The deposed former head of the Grootvlei prison allegedly received bribes from prisoners in exchange for preferential treatment.
An additional, internal investigation against him was at an advanced stage, the department said earlier. Ironically, Setlai had played an important role in exposing
corruption at his prison. He granted four prisoners, later dubbed the Grootvlei Four,
permission to make a secret video implicating several corrupt warders. The video was broadcast by the SABC.
Departmental spokesperson Johan Massyn said on Monday 18 of the 22 implicated warders had since been dismissed following disciplinary hearings. One of the 22 had died of natural causes, and a second was dismissed for an earlier contravention of the rules. The disciplinary hearings of the remaining two warders were to resume on July 16. – Sapa