The shootout at Groote Schuur hospital during an attempted jail break that left one warder dead and another injured was a ”serious blunder”, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said in Parliament on Tuesday.
”There were security breaches; there is no doubt about it,” said Balfour, addressing the correctional services portfolio committee.
He was referring to a March incident in which four gunmen opened fire on warders in Groote Schuur hospital as they escorted a cash-in-transit suspect who required medical treatment.
Reporting to the committee on the incident, regional Commissioner Bongani Gxilishe said it was clear the gunmen were already waiting for the prisoner when they arrived.
The committee heard that the warders entered the hospital and asked the registration clerk for a private room in which to wait with their ”high-profile prisoner”.
She refused, and it was then that the waiting gunmen opened fire.
One warder was gunned down and the attackers took his R4 assault rifle, Gxilishe said. The men also tried to flee with the prisoner, but he was shot and wounded by another warder.
None of the members had worn their bullet-proof jackets on that particular day, the investigation found.
Gxilishe said that, following the incident, the Department of Correctional Services had met with the hospital to establish how to improve security.
”The security at Groote Schuur will be informed when ‘high-profile’ inmates will attend the hospital,” he said explaining that what is still under discussion is the admittance of inmates for more than one day.
He said a task team consisting of both departments will draft a protocol to manage the relationship.
Balfour said the transporting of prisoners to and from hospitals puts his personnel at unnecessary risk and a solution to the problem has to found.
”It is still very clear that the gang he belonged to still want him out,” Balfour said.
It is also essential to discover how the prisoner managed to get information to the outside world that he was being taken to the hospital. — Sapa