Cape Town – Security company G4S has defended its insistence that the body found burnt in a single cell at Mangaung Correctional Centre was that of escaped prisoner Thabo Bester, despite post-mortem results indicating otherwise.
Bester asked to be moved to a single cell on April 30 for his safety when he allegedly could not pay a protection fee to members of the 26 gang.
Days after his relocation, a fire broke out in the cell and a body believed to be his was burnt and a doctor certified Bester dead.
A G4S internal investigation found that the night duty supervisor and two control room officials failed to follow the prison’s policies and procedures.
The company’s regional commercial director for Africa, Cobus Groenewoud, said their stance was based on the information available to them.
“We asked for a pathology report mid-last year. We were not handed it. It was on 2 February that we were given a copy of the pathology and DNA reports.
“Until that stage we had no evidence other than rumours that there had been an escape or it was not inmate Thabo Bester that died in that cell,” Groenewoud said.
He said the identity of the body was that of Bester until February this year, when SAPS opened a case for investigation of the escape and the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (Jics) informed them that they suspected Bester had escaped from prison.
He said there had been a lot of speculation about the identity of the body found in the cell.
Asked why they clung to the position when it was clear to everyone it was not Bester’s body, he said they were not the primary investigating authority and did not have access to the evidence.
Groenewoud said the matter was initially dealt with as a suicide and later amended to a murder until there was news of Bester’s possible escape.
“Prior to that we had no evidence to suggest factually the body in prison was not Bester,” he said.
The private prison bosses could not say how petrol got into the cell.
G4S audit and risk director Gert Beyleveld said: “Unfortunately, that could not be determined. It could not be ascertained how the accelerant got into the centre.”
Groenewoud said when they detected the smell of petrol in Bester’s possessions, they alerted the police.
He, however, did not rule out that certain of their members together with Bester “carefully planned this event”.
The MPs heard that there were 23 staff members who were on duty when Bester escaped and three were dismissed.
Groenewoud confirmed that they did not conduct a forensic investigation into the cause of the fire.
“We don’t know what caused the fire.”
The prison bosses defended the allocation of a laptop to Bester, saying he was registered with a formal institution to study as part of rehabilitation.
“Those laptops must not have modem,” Mangaung Correctional Centre head Joseph Monyante said, adding that spot checks were conducted and the IT monitored their use.
The MPs raised concern that Jics was notified about an unnatural death six days after the incident.
G4S said they had reported the matter to the DCS controller who in turn was to report to the commissioner and Jics.
“The responsibility to report is with controllers, not our office. Our duty is to report to the controller on site,” Monyante said.
Cape Times