Groenewald says DCS will allow G4S contract to expire

Two years since the decision to cancel the contract for the private running of the Mangaung Correctional Centre, Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald says he will now allow the arrangement to expire naturally.

He has informed Parliament's portfolio committee that litigation to prematurely terminate the contract has become too costly to pursue with just seven months remaining.

Parliament has on more than one occasion instructed the department to cancel the arrangement with security company, G4S, spurred on by the elaborate escape of convicted murderer Thabo Bester in 2022.

The Mangaung and Kutama-Sinthumule correctional centres are the only two privately run prisons in the country.

Following a parliamentary probe into Bester's escape, the department has been tied up in a legal battle with G4S after announcing in 2023 that it planned to terminate the contract within three months.

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Groenewald said there is now little point in continuing with this.

"I think the best option for DCS, as well as the taxpayers is that the contract runs out and has a natural death."

On Tuesday, Correctional Services officials told the portfolio committee that the department is on track for the takeover of the facility that houses 2900 high-risk inmates.

Acting National Commissioner Tlabo Thokolo says a temporary manager is stationed at the Mangaung facility to mitigate against potential sabotage of the takeover at the end of June next year.

"We will, as the task team and the branches on a weekly basis monitor our activities and check what is happening at Mangaung Correctional Centre."

These two private prison contracts cost the state around R90-million a month.

The contract for Kutama-Sinthumule Correctional Centre runs out in March 2027.