Thousands of rands worth of narcotics and dozens of potentially lethal handmade weapons have been seized in a raid on Pretoria Central Prison.
The raid, which was carried out by specialised correctional services officers who searched more than 400 prisoners, brought an end to Operation Vula, the Department of Correctional Services’s annual festive security plan aimed at halting escapes, assaults, deaths and other security breaches.
The operation, run over the last six years, has, according to the department, led to a 90 percent reduction in escapes over the festive season between the 2005/2006 financial year and the 2010/2011 financial year and a decrease of 72 percent and 73 percent in assaults and unnatural deaths respectively.
Announcing the end of the operation, Correctional Services national commissioner Tom Moyane led dozens of members of the department’s specialised Emergency Support Teams into the prison, home to more than 1 200 sentenced prisoners, including murderers, rapists, thieves, robbers, hijackers and kidnappers.
Using the element of surprise, search parties waited until the inmates had been locked into their cells for the night before conducting the raid. They did this so that warnings about the raid could not be communicated between prisoners in other sections of the prison.
Hauling prisoners out of their cells, warders forced inmates to squat in passages as they searched them and their cells for contraband ranging from weapons to drugs and other illegal items.
“It’s like the jackpot. Sometimes you get a major stash and sometimes you come away with nothing,” said Moyane.
The raid had been highly successful, he said.
“We got more than we bargained for. We uncovered a huge stash of dagga, we got back dozens of handmade weapons, including knives, sharpened pieces of broken glass, metal stakes and other objects which could easily be used to kill,” he said.
Highlighting disturbing security breaches over the festive season, Moyane said some of the inmates were extremely clever.
He pointed out some of the recovered items, including a handmade cellphone charger fashioned from copper wire, plastic, a gate remote battery and a kettle element made from tinfoil and an energy-saving light bulb housed in a plastic bottle.
“We are dealing with very crafty people, who have hours to be creative and devise ways to make contraband, be it weapons, cellphone chargers or other electronic devices.
“Because of this we have to be one step ahead. We do this so we can build an environment effective for rehabilitation, development and the social re-integration of offenders.
“No inmate can effectively study or attend rehabilitation programmes if they live in constant fear of and threat to their lives,” Moyane said.
He said the operation had been a response to a disturbing pattern of offender-perpetrated security breaches during the festive season over the past number of years.
“These breaches are mainly around escape and see inmates trying to break free at all costs. It is these escapes which have left both officials and offenders either dead, maimed or seriously injured.
“While we are winning the battle against escapes, assaults and unnatural deaths the number of incidents remains unacceptably high.
“This year we have seen a significant decline in escapes, deaths and assaults. Two escapes occurred at Leeuwkop prison and one at Groenpunt prison.
“While we are pleased about the declines, we are particularly concerned about the number of assaults and even though they have dropped from 622 in the 2005/2006 financial year to 171 in the 2010/2011 financial year they are still unacceptably high,” he said.
Moyane said that to ensure better security around prisons strict adherence to security procedures, tightening of supervision of staff and inmates and pro-active management of security information was required.
“If we do this we can carry on winning,” he said. - Pretoria News
