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Eastern Cape prison warders are being investigated for the theft of 5,000 chickens and scores of pigs from farms situated inside two prison grounds.
The farms feed more than 15,000 prisoners, a source in the prison said.
The chickens have disappeared from the St Albans maximum prison’s poultry project in Port Elizabeth, while dozens of pigs and a tractor are missing from Middledrift prison’s piggery project, the source said.
The piggery feeds more than 10,000 prisoners kept at 13 prisons in the Eastern Cape.
There are 21,900 prisoners imprisoned in 45 Eastern Cape prisons who are fed from food grown and produced from four prisons including St Albans, Kirkwood (cattle, sheep and goats), Middledrift and Mthatha’s Wellington prison (eggs and pork).
The Eastern Cape department of correctional services and the national correctional services department said several cases of theft had been reported to the police by the provincial prison authorities. An internal inquiry has also been launched by the national department.
Eastern Cape correctional services spokesperson Nobuntu Gantana said: “The department is taking the issue very seriously hence investigations are currently underway and these were reported to the SAPS. These investigations are therefore two-fold in a sense that there is an internal process under the auspices of DCS [department of correctional services] and an external process conducted by SAPS.”
Gantana declined to reveal the value of the losses or confirm the names of officials involved.
“Should it happen that some of our officials are found to be involved, they will be subjected to the criminal justice system, just like any member of society and the department will also take punitive action against them. “Losses as a result of theft are reported as required by the Public Finance Management Act.
“It does concern the department that there have been security-related breaches. It is a fact that some of these breaches could be avoided if managed correctly. Hence, we have made it mandatory for every security breach to be fully investigated and measures to be taken almost immediately in order to restore normalcy,” she added.
A two-week investigation by the Daily Dispatch revealed that food meant for prisoners had been plundered.
A source revealed that the national office of correctional services was threatening to shut down the schemes over the alleged looting spree. Gantana would not comment on the allegations.
“It's really bad. Our own members are stealing from the prisoners,” said a source.
Police prisons and civil rights union (Popcru) provincial secretary Zamikhaya Skade said statements had been taken from warders in charge of security at Middledrift prison over the loss of pigs.
“Yes we can confirm two of our members were questioned, but no further action has been taken and there were no follow-ups since.”
The Middledrift piggery was started on October 16 2007 and covers 2.2 hectares of land with 143 sows and 10 boars for breeding. The on-site abattoir has the capacity to slaughter 60 a day and keep them in cold storage.
The Middledrift prison supplies pork to prisons in East London, Mdantsane, Stutterheim, Makhanda, Sada, Komani, Butterworth, Lady Frere and Dutywa.
An internal report details the value of pigs produced at the facility for 2011-12 at R1.31m, and at R1.37m for 2012-2013.
A source said national bosses were so angry, they threatened to shut it down after losses started being recorded.
Students from the University of Fort Hare, Lovedale and Fort Cox colleges do practical training at Middledrift and would lose out if the project were closed.
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