Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Janho Engelbrecht MP.
-Department must answer for failures.
-Warden arrested with contraband.
-DA demands answers on searches.
The DA will submit parliamentary questions to the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) regarding the number of searches for contraband done in each prison over the past 2 years, what contraband was found, whether officials, guards or wardens were involved, and whether searches were scheduled or intelligence-led.
The department must explain why it has failed to stop the circulation of contraband through South African prisons. They must be held accountable for the security failures allowing drugs, cellphones and other contraband into correctional facilities.
This follows the arrest earlier this week of a Goodwood Prison warden during a targeted roadblock at Goodwood Prison.
Police allegedly found 600 Mandrax tablets, 100 grams of tik, 300 grams of dagga, 23 cellular telephones, three pairs of AirPods, five USB memory sticks, 10 condoms and 60 libido tablets in the warden’s vehicle.
The alleged seizure is deeply concerning, not only because of the quantity and variety of contraband involved, but because of the apparent role of an official entrusted with securing the facility. Officials have legitimate access to and knowledge of security procedures, making corruption or collusion by even a small number of staff particularly damaging.
The department cannot treat this as an isolated incident. Parliament has previously raised concerns about the increase in cellphone discoveries at Goodwood, including the potential use of illicit phones by gang leaders to communicate with people outside prison. Yet contraband continues to make its way into correctional facilities.
DCS needs to strengthen intelligence-led searches of officials, vehicles and high-risk areas, alongside proper vetting, rotation of personnel in sensitive posts and credible integrity assessments where legally permissible.
Technology must also be strengthened, including cellphone detection, CCTV, access control and monitoring of vulnerable points around facilities.
Most importantly, DCS must ensure that officials caught facilitating the movement of drugs or phones face swift disciplinary action alongside criminal investigations where appropriate. Honest officials must also be protected when they provide credible intelligence about corruption.
Minister Groenewald must answer for what is happening in correctional facilities under his authority. A prison should be one of the hardest places in the country to operate a drug-smuggling business, not a place where corruption makes that business possible.