SOUTH AFRICA: British security firm G4S faces South Africa prison abuse allegations

Record ID: 334684

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: British security firm G4S faces South Africa prison abuse allegations
  • Date: 28th October 2013
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA ( OCTOBER 28, 2013) (REUTERS) INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST RUTH HOPKINS WALKING INTO HER OFFICE WIDE OF HOPKINS USING THE PHONE HOPKINS HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, RUTH HOPKINS, SAYING: "It seems to be widespread and it seems a way for the prison to control it's prison population , so they, I hear stories of how they take prisoners to single cells, they strip them naked, they pour water over over them, they put them on a metal bed frame and they electroshock them. I have not only heard this from prisoners I've heard it from wardens as well as source, an official who works for the department of correctional services and so it's widely corroborated, and also video footage was leaked to me, video footage shot inside the prison and on one of the videos there is clear audio of electro shocking going on and the inmate screaming and they seem to be using it as a method of interrogation."
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA8SLZLWS7ZPAU76FP7RSGNAWVM
  • Story Text: British security group G4S workers have been accused of electrocuting and drugging prisoners at South Africa's Mangaung prison, the maximum security facility it ran before the government stepped in to restore order in October.
    The Wits Justice Project said on Monday (October 28) some prisoners were forcibly injected with anti-psychotic medication and subjected to electric shocks.
    The abuse allegations at Mangaung - the second-largest privately run prison in the world according to G4S - follow scandals at the British company such as failing to provide enough guards at the London 2012 Olympics and discrepancies in tagging prisoners in Britain.
    Ruth Hopkins, an investigative journalist with the Wits Justice Project, said she had documented cases of beatings - including electro shocking - involving about 30 inmates. She had also documented about 20 cases of forced injections of anti-psychotic drugs.

    "It seems to be widespread and it seems a way for the prison to control it's prison population , so they, I hear stories of how they take prisoners to single cells, they strip them naked, they pour water over over them, they put them on a metal bed frame and they electroshock them. I have not only heard this from prisoners I've heard it from wardens as well as source, an official who works for the department of correctional services and so it's widely corroborated, so video footage was leaked to me, video footage shot inside the prison and on one of the videos there is clear audio of electro shocking going on and the inmate screaming and seem to be using it as a method of interrogation,"
    she told Reuters.
    The Wits Justice Project is part of the Journalism Department of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and investigates alleged cases of mistreatment and miscarriage of justice in South Africa's prisons and justice system.
    In a formal statement reacting to the most recent allegations, South Africa's Correctional Services Minister, Sibusiso Ndebele, promised an exhaustive investigation.
    The allegations came after South Africa's Department of Correctional Services took over the facility on October 9 because the private security firm "lost effective control" of the 3,000-inmate establishment, a senior prisons official said on Monday.
    James Smalberger, Chief Deputy Commissioner of Incarceration and Corrections, said safety and security issues at the prison were under scrutiny well before the most recent allegations.

    "It was clear from the available information and the fact that the safety and security of Mangaung was on the public scrutiny for some time and therefore it was clear with all the assault, with all the labour unrest as well as the hostage dramas that were there, that G4S Management have lost effective control at the Mangaung private facility and therefore Section 112 was invoked to make sure that the department restore the order there and take back full control and this can also be seen as part of the part correctional service's attempts to make sure that the stability in all the 243 correctional facilities as well as in the facility at Mangaung" Smalberger told Reuters.
    All of these issues, in addition to the latest allegations made by the Wits group, were now the subject of an ongoing official investigation into the management of the Mangaung Private Correctional Centre, which had been run by G4S, the world's biggest security firm, since 2001.

    "The allegations made against the G4S management, the department regard them as very serious because the human rights of the offenders are very important and those allegations need to be seriously investigated to make sure that we don't leave any stones unturned, to make sure that we can get right to the bottom of those allegations and those people who are implicated in those allegations need to face the consequences of their actions," said Smalberger.
    Smalberger did not say his department had confirmed the mistreatment allegations made by the Wits group. The department was looking into them as part of its overall investigation into the G4S management of the prison.
    The problems at the facility were exacerbated when G4S dismissed more than 300 of its workers after a labour dispute.
    The company said on Monday that it asked the Department of Correctional Services for assistance to manage the prison, and it decided step in and to manage the prison on an interim basis. A spokeswoman for G4S said the company was happy to have the help. She also said the staff did not have access to medication and they did not administer drugs, in a denial of the allegations made against the company.
    G4S head of operations in Africa, Andy Baker, told BBC radio on Monday that he expects G4S to be given back control of the prison in the near future.
    Mangaung was only one of two prisons, out of the 243 correctional facilities in South Africa, that were privately run, Smalberger said.
    The South African government had decided in 2010 not to pursue or further expand a policy of public/private partnerships in the running of prisons.
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