SOWETAN | G4S contract must bite the dust

Shortly after 2pm yesterday, Dr Nandipha Magudumana stepped into the dock at the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court. 

It was a moment the nation had been waiting for.

Accused of a litany of charges to do with aiding the elaborate prison escape of her murderer boyfriend, Thabo Bester, Magudumana was SA’s most wanted woman until the pair was arrested in Tanzania a week ago. 

In the coming weeks and months we will hopefully understand comprehensively what happened at the Mangaung correctional services before and after Bester’s escape last year.

Importantly, we hope that the arrest of Magudumana’s co-accused, including her father; Zolile Sekeleni; is the beginning of a process to ensure that finally justice is served.

Most urgent for now should be the government’s handling of the G4S contract.

The company’s appearance before the portfolio committee on correctional services confirmed that G4S has no business managing a prison on behalf of the state. 

It was under its watch that Bester planned and executed an escape which saw him roam the streets as a free man for several months while company officials maintained that he had died in his cell in May 2022.

G4S management knew that Bester  was missing from as early as August last year from security footage from the prison on the day a fire broke out in his cell. October investigations pointed to possible collusion between G4S employees and Bester.

The company’s decision to suspend and subsequently fire some employees indicates, at the very least, its belief that its rules were broken and that potentially a crime had been committed.

Yet it was only this week before the committee that it gave a half-hearted admission that the man had escaped.

And that was pretty much the end of it.

Throughout their engagement with SA’s lawmakers, G4S evaded accountability, often refusing to answer basic questions on the basis that some of its investigations were incomplete.

Inspecting judge of correctional services, Justice Edwin Cameron was perhaps the most incisive when describing the conduct of G4S bosses.

“There was defensiveness rooted in self-interest and a reluctance to take responsibility (because) this would have worldwide implications on their operations beyond the Mangaung correctional centre,” Cameron told the parliamentary committee on correctional services yesterday.

He is right. The conduct of this company throughout this ordeal has been abhorrent. 

There is no plausible reason why it should continue to benefit any more from the taxpayer.

The government must cut its losses immediately.