Correctional officer murder: Parliamentary Committee wants answers

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services intends asking for a report into the alleged rape and murder of a 50-year-old female prison warder, who was found dead inside Johannesburg’s Leeuwkop prison.

The gruesome discovery was made in the Medium A area of the prison, which is used as a COVID-19 isolation site.

The Department of Correctional Services has since said it is in the process of establishing the facts and circumstances that led to her death.

The committee’s chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe has appealed to authorities to leave no stone unturned in finding the perpetrator and bringing them to book for the gruesome crime.

“It is suspected that the officer, whose lifeless body was found where she had been booked to work at the COVID-19 isolation ward, might have been strangled and raped. A blood-stained towel was found within the same vicinity, indicating that the perpetrator of such a vile crime had ample time to try to clean up the evidence,” Magwanishe said.

“I will request the Department of Correctional Services for a full report on this matter from the centre management of Leeuwkop,”

Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services Chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe

Popcru wants heads to roll over prison warder’s death

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has also reacted to the suspected murder and wants to know why the officer was individually booked at the COVID-19 isolation ward where inmates who have tested positive are kept.

“As per security policies, why did she not get security visits throughout the day? Why was she not relieved during the expected lunch time? And why was there no concern when she had not submitted the ward keys during the expected knock-off time?,” Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo asked.

He added that as Popcru, they are concerned about the lack of clarity over the circumstances of her final hours, in the light of them warning previously about understaffing and overcrowding.

The union has called for the immediate suspension of the Acting Area Commissioner, the Head of Prison, and the Security Manager at the Leeuwkop Correctional Centre.