Boiling water thrown at warders in cell drama
THE Correctional Services Emergency Support Team (EST) in Pollsmoor Prison remain on high alert following an attack on eight warders.
It resulted in three of them being taken to hospital for serious injuries yesterday.
During the violence, 35 inmates also sustained injuries and three were seriously hurt.
The eight warders were injured when inmates in the prison’s E section allegedly threw boiling water at them.
The officers were searching for a cellphone believed to have been used by an unidentified 28-year-old inmate, said Correctional Services commissioner Delekile Klaas.
The ringleaders in the attack, a 28-year-old awaiting-trial prisoner accused of murdering a police officer in Khayelitsha and an inmate incarcerated at Goodwood Prison, had been placed in Pollsmoor’s solitary confinement, according to Klaas.
The prison’s E section had 64 awaiting-trial inmates.
“Our Emergency Support Team were deployed to the cell in question and they used minimum force and the inmates were injured in the process,” said Klaas.
He said preliminary investigation found that the inmate using the cellphone was “using it to give instructions for witnesses to be killed”.
Correctional Services spokesperson Simphiwe Xako said management of Medium A got a tip-off about a cellphone in E section.
But when warders tried to unlock the cell, they found that the inmates had blocked the unlock mechanism of the door.
“Sensing that offenders were up to something, they retreated and called for more manpower. On returning while trying to unlock the door, offenders threw boiling water at them.
“A cellphone believed to be utilised to orchestrate a crime outside was found and confiscated,” said Xako.
An attack on eight wardens at Pollsmoor Prison resulted in three of them being taken to hospital with serious injuries yesterday. Inmates allegedly threw boiling water at them. Thirty-five inmates were injured.