In a significant raid at Johannesburg Correctional Centre, also known as Sun City, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Department of Correctional Services officers seized various smuggled items, including PlayStation consoles, cellphones, and televisions. The operation was led by Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, the head of the Department of Correctional Services.
Thobakgale emphasized the importance of accountability among correctional services officials during the raid.
“Firstly, we start with unit managers. In every unit, there is a unit manager who now needs to account for what we found here. The second thing is to tighten security especially around the movement (that is) movements to court, movements to hospitals and even movements inside the centre,” he stated.
The raid follows a similar incident at Goodwood Correctional Centre, where contraband, including money, cellphones, and dagga pipes, was confiscated from inmates. This action was prompted by a viral video shared on TikTok by Zimbabwean national Bornface Banks. In the video, Banks boasted about the comfortable lifestyle enjoyed by inmates, highlighting that they received free housing, electricity, toiletries, food, and education.
Thobakgale discussed the challenges faced in discovering contraband within the facility.
“It is difficult to search. Most of these offenders what they do, they hide contraband in objects where you will not think they will hide them. Others will hide them inside television sets, that is why we have taken them. We have to unscrew and see what is inside.
They hide them inside food containers, they hide them in mattresses so that is why you see we had to search even the mattresses and pillows,” he explained.
The recent raid at Sun City underscores the ongoing struggle to maintain security and control within correctional facilities, ensuring that contraband does not make its way into the hands of inmates.
