Thabo Bester

The Escape of convicted rapist and taboo

and murderer Roberta is like something

from a Hollywood Blockbuster his

re-emergence after allegedly dying in a

prison cell fire last year has raised

the possibility of corruption within

Correctional Services departments and

Facilities to date three officials from

the emergency security team have been

suspended and a Security Supervisor is

before the commission for conciliation

mediation and arbitration pop crew

spokesperson Richard mamabola joins me

now to tell us more on this Richard as I

mentioned in my introduction really this

is like a movie it's just and these are

the kinds of things that you see in a

movie how does somebody just escape from

prison like this and only a year later

our authorities aware of this as Pop

crew you know I'm sure you have a

response to this

I think the circumstances leading to The

Escape of Mr bestie are quite surprising

especially considering that since then

there had been an internal investigation

and as you said that there were people

who were charged who are suspended and

they therefore indeed therefore the

meant that the case was closed it's only

now that the ability reports in the past

week that the investigations are being

opened and that suggests that they would

have definitely been there well certain

people who would have been involved

because it's quite clear that it could

not have been one person who actually

orchestrated this whole thing the fact

that there was a body which was placed

in the cell and the fact that means the

best at the end left his cell would have

meant that there has been there had been

some form of a coordination and I think

thanks to the reports that came out

otherwise we would have known about this

and it would have generally been assumed

that Mr investor was deceased you know

so so it raises a lot of questions about

the management of private prisons

because we remember that the role of

managing that president is not that of

the GCS but that of the private prison

itself and the fact that in line with

the prescripts that guide around how uh

well when slps actually well other than

the DCS and when this is a private

company to run their presence on what

prescripts are supposed to be followed

are clearly ignored there's a

correctional services at 111 of 2018

which clearly stimulates that what rules

that the correctional center well this

year is still playing ensuring that the

private presence actually abide by the

priest clubs now in this regard it then

therefore means that the DC has only

relied on information that they got

without necessarily making a proper

investigations and according to the

prescripts they are supposed to have

what you call a controller who's

supposed to monitor all events within

those presence so we think that both

parties then need to be held accountable

and of course I think let's say you know

we've been saying quite a number of

times that the use of public well

private presence in our country is not

the country since their priorities

around their profit maximization as

opposed to the commodity of the DCS

which is to rehabilitate which is again

uh well a constitutional imperative that

the DCS must so obviously abide by

I wonder what your thoughts are Richard

on the fact that this body that was

found in that prison cell was already at

stages of decomposing it was already the

body was already decomposing so one

wonders how that body even got into this

prison in the first place never mind

into the prison cell

um and that obviously alludes to the

fact that there were a number of

Correctional Services

officers that were part of all of this

um how easy is it for this to actually

unfold probably very easier if it

literally happened under our watch but

it raises a lot of questions especially

about the the state of that body that

was found

no most definitely clearly this was

orchestrated but as well you should

remember that the the running of the

prison was not under the well the guide

of the DCS rather than the president the

private president so it's people who

work in the private prison uh and mainly

senior people who would have known how a

body could just find itself in a Cell

whereas the person who was supposed to

be there escaped so it's some

investigation which we think should be

immediate looking into who is

responsible and what kind of uh well I

had earlier on from the journalists were

invitically territory that they will be

making further Revelations during the

week so I hope that from then we will

get a sense of who was involved but it

could definitely not have been Junior

officials definitely senior officials

within the private prison itself but

again like I said the DCS derelgated its

duty of ensuring that they ensure that

there's compliance and they monitor the

situation that all times so it cannot be

that after a year they then come and say

okay because they are reports now they

then they open the investigation it

means that they have not been doing

their work all along I wonder who you

think should take responsibility for

this or whose heads should roll in this

particular matter because about uh two

weeks ago we spoke to the police

Minister who confirmed to Enca that the

DNA of that of Thabo Bester did not match

with the individual that was found in

that cell and then we spoke to the

Department of Correctional Services on

that Saturday and they said to us that

they are still investigating a week

later we suddenly get a post-mortem

report confirming that indeed Thabo

Bester did not die in that cell who do

you think must take responsibility is it

the minister of police is it the

Minister of Correctional Services and

Justice Ronald Lamola who exactly

because I'm flabbergasted at the fact

that you have these various departments

a whole convicted rapist and murder

escaped from prison and only a year

later because of ground Up's work now

the country is in a complete State and

panic

look based on the circumstances that I

play we think that both say they they

will the DCS management and the sg4s to

take accountability but government

should also take accountability in well

to the extent of ensuring that they

really do away with their private

presence I think one of the issues we've

been raising is the fact that we've been

spending about over 1 billion rents on a

yearly basis for the two private prisons

in the country and of course the results

have not been as expected because they

are not concerned about human rights

their main focus is just to generate

profit so so I think

we find fault in both the DCS and of

course the private is a company that is

running the president

certainly okay thank you so much for

your insights we do appreciate it we'll

definitely, be keeping track of the story

it's such a bizarre story and actually

just so unacceptable it's going to be

very critical for the Minister of

Justice Ronald Lamola to come forward

and address the nation so we can get a

better understanding of what exactly is

going on and the police Minister because

we know now that there is an um Manhunt

out for the supposed.