Kimberley facility dogged by chronic mismanagement from the start
Latest of startling incidents is that the master key to the prison has been lost
DA calls for the department to conduct an independent investigation





The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services was today briefed on the situation at the New Kimberley Correctional Centre. This centre was finished a year behind schedule and R2690,6 million over its adjusted budget. It was commissioned before it was fully operational. Its plans were changed during construction leading to serious design flaws, such as the hospital section having no toilets.

It was then staffed by officials the Department now admits are inexperienced. Indeed, the Department appointed a Head of Centre it now conceded is ‘incompetent' and potentially guilty of ‘gross negligence of duty.'

It was populated in a completely unplanned way, drawing inmates randomly from as far afield as the Eastern Cape. Maximum inmates were hurriedly and unjustifiably reclassified as medium offenders to qualify for admission to the centre.

Within six months of being commissioned, damage to property and equipment has been done by inmates and staff running to millions of Rands. This has now been compounded by the prison riot in which an estimated R4,4,million of damage was caused.

To add insult to injury, when reporting on its investigation into the riot, the Department omitted to mention that at least one master key (which can open all doors in the prison) is missing. The security implications of this are obvious and serious. Furthermore, the situation was not helped by the fact that this information was not immediately forthcoming in the presentation to the Committee today made by the Regional Commissioner, Mr. Zach Modise. Mr. Modise only revealed this information after I asked him a direct question.

It is clear that this has been a chapter of disasters from beginning to end. It is not good enough that the Department investigate the causes and effects of this mismanagement. There must be an independent investigation, the report of which should be submitted to the Portfolio Committee.