Concerns over inmate overcrowding and staff shortages have been placed in the spotlight, following a fatal stabbing incident at the Pollsmoor Correctional Facility.  

Two inmates died following Wednesday’s incident, which the Correctional Services Department believes was actually directed at officials on duty.  

READ MORE: Two Inmates Dead in Stabbing at Pollsmoor Remand Facility

While calm has since been restored at the facility, the Western Cape branch of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) voiced serious concern, especially for the safety of wardens and other officials.  

POPCRU’s provincial secretary, Mluleki Mbele, said two officials were wounded in the incident.

He noted that the attack was particularly concerning because it happened after the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, visited Pollsmoor last month.  

Mbele said that the incident follows repeated warnings by POPCRU that unsafe working conditions (such as dilated prison infrastructure), overcrowded prisons, and a reduced workforce are putting the safety of officials on duty at risk.  

“The number of employees or officials at Correctional Services has significantly decreased over the years, thus creating danger and putting the officials who are on duty at risk, and we are not anywhere near reaching the threshold in terms of offender and official ratio in line with the international standards,” said Mbele. 

He further noted that officials, in this incident and in general, should not face scrutiny because they are working under trying conditions. 

“If the members are not protected, who must then protect them, if the department is not? Because safety of our officials comes first,” said Mbele. 

He said these conditions have also been exacerbated by a lack of intervention. 

“How many more members must go through stabbing? And who must then be stabbed so that the department can do the right thing, employ more officials, and then fix all these dilapidated buildings, and then make the inmates to go and work so that the department is self-sufficient.” 

Mbele further urged the Correctional Services Department, as well as the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, to address these concerns as soon as possible. 

“[The departments] must put proper systems in place and proper security to ensure that members’ safety is taken care of, because as it is now, we believe the department does not care.”