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It has come to light that some prisoners are treated as more important than
others by senior officials of the Westville Correctional Centre in Durban.

The IFP calls for an urgent investigation concerning claims of inequality in
the treatment of prisoners in Westville prison in Durban.

IFP Spokesperson on Correctional Services, Mr Velaphi Ndlovu said "In
Westville Prison one of the inmates, Russel Ngubo, who was the former head
of prisons and who killed an IFP member in 2005, has more privileges than
other inmates. Not only is he allowed to leave the prison periodically, but
he is also has access to government officials from the provincial department
of correctional services. He even wears his own clothes and eats better food
than other prisoners. This calls for urgent intervention from the minister"

Ndlovu added that "The senior officials of the Department of Correctional
Services especially the Provincial Commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele must be held
accountable. He must provide answers about why this inmate communicates with
him and why he signed papers that allow Ngubo freedom to walk in and out of
prison to go to the bank and other places. Prisoners must be treated equally
and be subjected to the same rules, no matter who the prison may know in the
outside world"

The IFP calls on the Minister of Correctional Service to speedup the
investigation into this matter and to suspend and even dismiss those
government officials involved in this matter. It is time for the Minister to
clean out this criminal rot from within his departmental ranks.