The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) continues to use corrugated iron sheet structures on prison grounds as barracks for employees at Mthatha prison, despite unions having flagged safety fears for years and the Department of Public Works saying they should be demolished.
Now a prison warder was trapped and killed in a blaze that engulfed a section of about a dozen of the metal shacks which had no fire extinguishers or emergency exit.
Police, Prisons and Civil Rights Union (Popcru) expressed anger over the loss of life of the 27-year-old man who died in the early hours of Sunday morning.