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Prison attack was ‘all about gang promotion’

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 St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth. Picture: Ewald Stander
St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth. Picture: Ewald Stander

Yesterday’s deadly attack at St Albans Prison in the Eastern Cape was gang-related – and the warders, not the inmates, will be held to account.

Speaking to City Press anonymously for fear of losing his job, a warder working at the Port Elizabeth prison said the attack was not an escape attempt.

“This time of the year falls within the ‘promotion season’ for inmates,” he said.

“From time to time prisoners engage in gang promotions. In order to advance an inmate in a lower gang rank must kill and be promoted,” he explained.

He said they noticed in the past days that the season had opened.

“Even in other prisons word had spread that something big would happen at St Albans,” he said.

“Yesterday confirmed what we had been told secretly.”

The warder said the worst part about the incident was that the system protected the inmates.

“They know that the members and not inmates will be made to account for incidents like today’s. Now we will have to account for fatally injuring them and life goes on for them,” he said.

The violent attack on a warder during the breakfast session yesterday resulted in three deaths and 26 injuries.

Health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo confirmed that emergency service personnel were dispatched to St Albans, following the clash between inmates and their guards.

“Several warders were among those transported to hospital and a total of 26 people were injured in the fracas, 10 of whom are reported to be in a critical condition.”

Kupelo said that circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear.

James Selfe, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on correctional services, said it was not the first time that violence had occurred in the prison.

“I will request that the correctional services department conducts a full and thorough investigation into the events that led to the fracas,” said Selfe.

“We cannot allow such incidents to continue without being accounted for,” he said.

Selfe said he would also write to the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services to ask the minister to appear before the committee as soon as possible at the beginning of 2017 to account to Parliament for the events.

The incident was believed to have broken out in the C Max section of the prison. Initial reports were that a prisoner stabbed a warder, sparking what was termed a “free for all” attack. The prisoners were believed to have been armed with self-made weapons and the warders retaliated.

The prisoners had reportedly used tear gas – in what has been described as “a well-orchestrated attack” – against the correctional services emergency response team.

A group of prisoners was believed to have forced their way into the administration building and locked themselves inside while another group attacked warders in the food hall.

The prison was forced into lockdown.

Deputy Justice Minister Thabang Makwetla and Correctional services National Commissioner Zach Modise were expected to visit the prison today.

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