About 150 wardens at Cape Town’s notorious prison have threatened to leave Pollsmoor unattended if the Department of Correctional Services does not give in to their demands over work conditions, safety and wages.
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In October, dozens of prison officials picketed outside the facility, following the stabbing of a warden, when disgruntled wardens, supported by the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), handed over a memorandum of demands.
The DCS was given two weeks to respond to the issues which included concerns following the stabbing, wage increases and overcrowding in the cells. This deadline has come and gone.
Popcru’s Western Cape provincial secretary, Pat Raolane, told Daily Maverick that inmates behave as if they are in a hotel and that union members were treated like waiters. He emphasised that the stabbing of members is at a crisis level due to understaffing.
At the time, Popcru gave the DCS 14 days to respond or face a strike at Pollsmoor.
Popcru’s issues listed among their demands were raised during the presentation of the Department of Justice and Correctional Service’s annual report before the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services on 13 October.
According to the Daily Maverick, the committee heard from Emmerantia Cupido, spokesperson for the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, that overcrowding enables violence in prisons and makes attacks on both inmates and officers more difficult to curb.
On Thursday, Popcru’s Raolane said that the industrial action had been put on hold.
“The Popcru central executive committee conference will be taking place in Gauteng on 13 and 14 November. The provincial leadership of the Western Cape will also be attending.
“We will table and discuss the Pollsmoor issue at the conference so that they can assist us in making a decision. Besides the issue of Pollsmoor, there is also the issue of salary increments. We will consolidate all these issues at this committee meeting.”
He said that there would be further engagements with the union’s leadership at a national level after the conference, adding that they would get back to members and take it from there.
Prof Lukas Muntingh, director of the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape and co-founder of Africa Criminal Justice Reform, cautioned that leaving Pollsmoor unattended would place Popcru in a very precarious position.
He said if its members went on strike and prisoners were harmed as a result, the union could be held responsible.
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