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- Popcru has urged the correctional services department to hire more guards and build more prisons in the Eastern Cape.
- The union said this would result in less violence at the province's 45 prisons, where over 21 000 inmates are housed.
- Many female guards, who make up 40% of the total number of prison warders, work at male prisons.
"Prisoners are in control of prisons in South Africa, members are at the mercy of prisoners," the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has said.
The union urged the Department of Correctional Services to hire more guards and build more prisons in the Eastern Cape to address overcrowding.
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Popcru blamed the increasing spate of attacks against warders on staff shortages and overcrowding at Eastern Cape prisons.
The union said two inmates stabbed three guards inside St Albans prison last Wednesday, and a week earlier a guard serving breakfast was stabbed in the eye at the same facility.
The guard, whose name is known to News24, is on sick leave.
Last week's attack, during which the two inmates used sharpened metal objects to stab the warders, was believed to be an attempt to avenge the death of a 28s gang member who was killed during clashes with guards at the facility in September 2019.
That incident followed a violent Boxing Day attack in 2016, during which three inmates were killed and 26 people, including guards, were injured during a prison riot.
READ | Fears of revenge attack by 28s gang after 3 warders are stabbed at Eastern Cape prison
The union said no new prisons had been built by the ANC government since it took over the country in 1994, and this contributed to overcrowding.
Combined, the Eastern Cape’s 45 prisons' overcrowding figures stood at 170.39%, while there was an 8.13% vacancy rate for guards, according to Popcru provincial secretary Xolani Prusente.
He said there were 21 145 inmates in the province's prisons and only 5 121 correctional services personnel watching over them.
Prusente added that only 60% of the workforce were guards trained to deal with prisoners, while 40% were support staff who worked in offices.
The 60% prison guard complement consists of 40% women, yet there was only one prison facility for women in the province, he said.
Prusente said:
"Sometimes the prisoners are jealous of the male members who are working closely with the female members. This also causes stabbings by prisoners. It’s very rare that prisoners stab a female guard," Prusente added.
Prusente urged the government to build more prisons away from urban areas; revisit approved staff complement to increase the number of guards; and abolish the "confusing shift system" and go back to the shifts of the previous regime, which included a 07:00-16:00 shift, a 16:00-00:00 shift, and a 00:00-07:00 shift.
"This will mean more members every day," Prusente argued.
The union stressed that prisoners must not be idle in prisons and should do hard labour, work on farms or in other industries, to work for their own food and keep.
"Despite the issue of overcrowding in the province's correctional centres, DCS does not employ more staff, it’s only last week they promised to employ 3 000 members nationally to deal with staff shortages... Even then it will take years, while overcrowding is growing every day," Prusente added.
Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said: "It is worth highlighting that the Department of Correctional Services is one of the few institutions that have been creating employment opportunities in the past two years, and continue to do so under very trying economic conditions."
Nxumalo said currently, the department has 1 008 learners at its colleges who will be deployed for experiential learning from 22 December 2022.
He said they will be replaced by another group of 1 032 learners early in 2023.
"It is thus difficult for the institution to comprehend a persistent line of staff shortages when there is a working programme that ensures that we maintain sufficient boots on the ground."
