Lay blame for Thabo Bester’s escape at the ANC’s door

Earlier this week, it was reported that the “ANC leadership” claimed to be enraged by the failings of the “security cluster ministers” following the escape of Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester from the privately run Mangaung Prison. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula even warned (apparently with a straight face) that the ministers might be fired unless they drastically improved their performance.

This attempt at distancing the ANC and the government it leads from the catastrophic management of the correctional services system over a period of more than 20 years – a classic case of gaslighting – would have been laughable had the party not deployed it successfully in the past to escape accountability for its many failures.

The systemic corruption and maladministration in the Department of Correctional Services, which made Bester’s escape possible and led to the attempted cover-up of the incident by the authorities, will not be fixed merely by firing the relevant ministers. One would have to fire the entire government to even begin to address the problem – something only voters can do.

It was the ANC government that decided in 2000 to enter into a 25-year contract with security company G4S. The prison commenced operations on 1 July 2001 and the contract is supposed to expire on 30 June 2026 (although that may now be in question – the G4S director was booted from the facility on Thursday and a temporary manager installed).

The contract was concluded despite G4S’s international reputation for corruption, racism, abuse, violence and neglect.

Why did the ANC government enter into a contract with a private company to build and run prisons, when it officially does not support the privatisation of public services?

The obvious answer is that such a contract provided opportunities for corruption for the benefit of politically connected individuals. This suspicion is supported by the work done by investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins, who has written extensively about G4S. She argued this week – relying on research done for a book – that the arrangement between G4S and the department was a money-making scheme that reminded her of the Bosasa scandal, and pointed out that the contract largely benefited a very powerful consortium of shareholders with connections high up in the ANC.

Despite the many reports of corruption and inhumane treatment in the facility (including an internal report that contains evidence of irregularities in the administration of drugs in the prison – which the department fought for five years to keep secret), the ANC government has not cancelled the contract. Nor could I find any evidence that the department had taken active steps to address the problem.

It is no secret that the department is rife with corruption, intimidation and nepotism and that it has experienced a total breakdown in the disciplinary system. Back in 2006, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into the Correctional Services system made damning findings about the culture of lawlessness in the department.

“Intimidation and fear is prevalent in the Department of Correctional Services, including head office. As a result, even the people holding management positions are not completely committed to the enforcement of the departmental regulations because they fear reprisal from other members. This is the case even if they are not corrupt because fear drives them to avoid enforcing the rules and regulations.”

A decade after the final Jali Commission report was published, Prof Lukas Muntingh wrote in an article in the SA Crime Quarterly that although there had been some improvement, the department “remains beset by the same problems as those the commission was established to address: overcrowding, corruption, impunity, rights violations and services that do not reach sufficient numbers of prisoners and leave much to be desired with regard to impact”.

What has been entirely absent from the responses by various government spokespeople and the relevant ministers is any explanation of why the matter had not been properly investigated until now, and why the department continued to mislead the public in the face of mounting evidence that its story was untrue. South Africans also deserve to know whether the minister, deputy minister or commissioner had approved the cover-up, or knew about it, and if they did, whether they will be held accountable.

Those in government who have political and administrative responsibility for the department, and the ANC government as a whole, should not be allowed to avoid accountability for the systemic failures that made Bester’s escape possible in the first place.