The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has set aside the Department of Correctional Services’ (DCS) premature state takeover of the Mangaung Correctional Centre, ruling the intervention unlawful.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has declared the government’s emergency intervention at the Mangaung Correctional Centre unlawful, ordering the Minister and the National Commissioner of Correctional Services to repay more than R1,7 million in “credits” claimed from Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC).
The payout must also include interest accrued at the prescribed rate from July 31, 2023 until the final payment is settled.
This is after the high court found that the National Commissioner of Correctional Services improperly invoked Section 112 of the Correctional Services Act in March 2023, nearly ten months after Facebook rapist and murder Thabo Bester escaped from the privately operated maximum-security prison in Bloemfontein in May 2022.
The court also found that the department demanded that BCC pay back the costs for the Section 112 intervention starting from March 28, 2023. However, BCC (the applicant) issued these credits but made it clear that they disagreed with the demand and were not admitting fault.
