CHARLES MOLELE
MINISTER of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola said on Thursday that he will not step down over the Thabo Bester controversy. However, he apologized to the victims of Bester’s crimes and said as the custodian, he takes full responsibility for the debacle.
Lamola and several officials from his department were briefing the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services in Parliament on Thursday about the investigation into Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, Free State.
A number of stakeholders were also called to Parliament for a two-day session to brief the committee on the circumstances surrounding Bester’s prison escape.
During a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday, DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach questioned Lamola about whether he would resign from his position in light of the blunders made by his department regarding the Thabo Bester matter.
Lamola responded by apologizing and taking full responsibility on the matter, but stated that he will not be resigning because he acted with urgency on suspicions of Bester’s escape.
“I am not going to resign because I did what I was supposed to do and you have even heard the judge (Edwin Cameron) that he informed me,” said Lamola.
“The judge said there is a suspicion that is investigated by the SAPS, the Department of Correctional Services, including the inspecting judge, which immediately I called the national commissioner to say ‘national commissioner I was on a call with the inspecting judge. There are the issues. He is saying that this thing is unbelievable. But it comes from a judge. You need to act on it, which is what I was supposed to do and we have done it.”
Members of Parliament (MPs) were unanimous that G4S had been negligent and incompetent in securing the correctional facility and questioned whether the security company should be trusted with the task it has been contracted to do by the Department of Correctional Services.
Lamola unequivocally told MPs that the Department of Correctional Services has no intention of renewing the contract with G4S when it expires in 2026, saying, “We will not renew the G4S contract. Our intention is that when the contract expires in 2026, we do not plan to renew it.”
Gratitude Magwanishe, the Chairperson of the committee, said that it will be up to the committee to decide whether to summon those who conducted the investigation into the faulty security system to testify before the committee.
During the session, it was also revealed that the report of an unnatural death in a prison cell was not reported to the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) until a week after the incident occurred.
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