The convict who runs his prison
Former jail boss serving 25 years for murder said to rely on cabinet ministers for soft treatment
A FORMER prison boss who is doing time for murder virtually runs the jail where he is being held.
Russel Ngubo, who is serving a 25-year jail term at Serfontein in Pietermaritzburg, is said to have a direct line to senior politicians, including cabinet ministers, and has been linked to the removal of two prison bosses who clashed with him.
On Wednesday, Ngubo was to be at the centre of a Labour Court battle between the former head of Medium B at Westville Prison, Mfanafuthi Nxumalo, who is fighting his suspension by KwaZulu-Natal correctional services commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele, which he alleges had to do with his refusal to give Ngubo special treatment.
A crucial piece of evidence in the court case is a secret recording Nxumalo made of a meeting between him and Nxele during which the latter bemoans the political pressure put on him and his exasperation with Ngubo’s sense of entitlement.
“In KZN, unlike other provinces, to be a regional commissioner ... it’s even more [pressure] for me. I was acting regional commissioner in the Western Cape and the government at some point was under the ANC . . . but I never got the pressure that I have [here].
“The source of [Ngubo’s] anger is because you [as] the head of the centre . . . are not doing what you are meant to be doing for him. Even [your predecessor] had his fair share . . . the [warders] were complaining . . . there was the incident where [Ngubo] klapped [hit] a warder. I don’t want to get entangled. Have known Ngubo since 1988,” Nxele says in the recording.
A transcript of the recording was due to be discussed in court on Wednesday, but the case was postponed after the department’s lawyers asked for more time to study it.
“The Ngubo issue is troubling me because I’m getting political pressure that Ngubo is being ill- treated . . . either from Bathabile Dlamini [the minister of social development] or from Shakes Cele [an ANC MPL] . . . Once it was Barbara Thompson [the deputy minister of energy]. I’m also aware, given that I worked with Ngubo, that sometimes he is hard-headed . . . he speaks to me as if we are still comrades. There’s not a sense that he is an inmate. I’ve never seen that,” says Nxele in the recording.
I’m getting political pressure that Ngubo is being ill-treated . . . There’s not a sense that he is an inmate
Nxele then tells Nxumalo to “resolve” whatever issues exist between him and Ngubo.
Nxumalo argues that his falling-out with Nxele stemmed from his refusal to be transferred to another prison, which he believes was a move to please Ngubo.
Ngubo was at Medium B until January when he was transferred to Serfontein. This was after officials uncovered a plot by him to orchestrate coordinated strikes in jails throughout KwaZulu-Natal and in Johannesburg Maximum Security Prison.
Instead of being charged for his alleged act of sabotage — which could have plunged Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele’s department into crisis — Ngubo was moved.
But as soon as he arrived at Serfontein, he clashed with the prison’s head, Jeff Stuart, who would not give in to Ngubo’s demands of being taken to court in a car “with soft seats” as opposed to the panel van used for all offenders.
Stuart told the Sunday Times: “Ngubo arrived in January and then my problems started.”
Stuart, 55, was forced into retirement in March by Nxele in what he refers to as a case of “constructive dismissal”.
Correctional services members who spoke to the Sunday Times alleged that Nxele was protecting Ngubo and that the minister turned a blind eye to complaints.
Nxele worked alongside Ngubo — the former head of the Pietermaritzburg New Prison — in the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union. Ngubo is also a former chairman of an ANC branch.
On Friday night, Nxele said the allegations were a plot against him.
“Nxumalo was suspended for what he has done [recording the conversation] . . . It has nothing to do [with Ngubo]. It’s a standalone issue. People must not dig holes and begin smear campaigns,” he said.
An irritated Thompson said she had called Nxele on Friday evening following the Sunday Times’s inquiry and he had given her a different version to what is on the recording.
“As someone who had my child murdered, I would never favour someone who is in custody for murder,” she said.
Dlamini also denied putting pressure on Nxele.
Ndebele’s spokesman, Logan Maistry, said the minister “has never had any unlawful association with any individual inmate or particular correctional centre”.