As police hinted at withdrawing at least some of the over-stretched officers manning strike-hit prisons in the Eastern Cape, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Sunday warned that the action is just the build-up to countrywide disruptions.
”We are saying they [the Department of Correctional Services] haven’t seen anything yet,” said Popcru spokesperson Pat Ntsobi.
Eastern Cape police and reservists were called in to help at Middeldrift, Fort Beaufort and Grahamstown prisons last week when warders stayed away, said police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender.
The worst-affected prison, Middeldrift, needed about 40 officers. About five were stationed at each of the other prisons, she said.
Working in shifts, the police officers are responsible for counting prisoners in the mornings, assisting with feeding them, locking them up, and guarding the inner and outer perimeters of the facilities.
The South African Police Service has been given no indication how long this might continue.
However, with the current holidays, it is possible there will not be as many police to spare ”because they have policing issues to deal with”, said Govender, who could not recall any other occasion when the police had been called in to supplement prison manpower.
Popcru embarked on its campaign of disruption last year, threatening a ”black Christmas” in prisons unless the Department of Correctional Services reinstated certain dismissed staff, increased its staffing complement, paid workers more and abandoned the reintroduction of a military-style ranking system.
It has claimed that South Africa’s over-crowded prisons need at least another 9 000 warders.
”We had hoped to arrive at an amicable solution, but it is clear the department wants to take a hard-line stance by not addressing the concerns of [our] members,” said Ntsobi.
Stressing that the action is not an attempt to undermine the government, he said it is rather an attempt to resolve a dispute between employer and employee, and the state remains the employer of warders. — Sapa