Eastern Cape transport and community safety MEC Xolile Nqatha has raised the alarm over claims that some of the province’s most serious crimes — including the assassination of New Brighton prosecutor Tracy Brown — are possibly being orchestrated from correctional facilities such as the St Albans prison.
Speaking at a crime prevention event at the Ebenezer Methodist Church in Zwide on Thursday, Nqatha said prisons such as St Albans in Gqeberha and Wellington in Mthatha were known to be notorious for breeding criminal activity.
He also criticised the department of correctional services for cancelling a planned raid at St Albans in July.
“There was a planned operation at St Albans ... that was stopped. I’m very unhappy about it,” Nqatha said, adding that he would be taking the matter up with the department.
“This is unlike them. It shouldn’t happen.”
His remarks follow a correctional services media advisory issued under embargo, which had stated that the department was set to conduct a search operation at the large prison on July 3.
Nqatha’s spokesperson, Makhaya Komisa, confirmed that the MEC had resolved that operations be conducted at certain prisons, including St Albans.
“What we have discovered is that some of these criminal activities are [allegedly] planned in these prisons,” Komisa said.
He said officials believed that even the mass shooting in Lusikisiki in 2024, where 18 people were killed, was allegedly planned from prison.
Nelson Mandela Bay district commissioner Major-General Vuyisile Ncata said though the cancelled raid raised concerns, it did not suggest anything untoward.
“Operations are, unfortunately, sometimes cancelled or times are changed,” he said.
Ncata said despite ongoing challenges — including the police being forced to deploy public order policing officers to funerals, sometimes for victims of gang-style hits, almost every weekend — a reduction in serious crimes such as murder, rape and robbery had been recorded in the region.
This was attributed to stronger collaboration between law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.
However, the persistence of gender-based violence remained a concern, Ncata said.
He called on community members to report taverns operating outside legal trading hours, warning that such establishments often contributed to community instability.
Correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said multiple operations had, in fact, been conducted at the St Albans prison ahead of a visit by acting national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale.
“No fewer than four searches were carried out [in one] week alone by the regional team,” Nxumalo said.
“The facility was found to be clean.”
Nqatha acknowledged that the fight against crime in Nelson Mandela Bay was tough, particularly in ensuring public services such as schools and clinics remained accessible to the public.
“It cannot happen that people cannot access services because of criminality,” he said.
According to a government report, nine out of 12 clinics meant to operate 24 hours a day in the metro are inaccessible at present.
The Herald
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