Popcru accuses G4S of firing Mangaung prison employees to avoid ...

The union questioned the private security company's decision to fire 4 junior staff members, arguing that Thabo Bester's prison escape could not have been manned by a junior.

Mangaung Correctional Centre where murderer and rapist Thabo Bester escaped in May 2022. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/ Eyewitness News.

BLOEMFONTEIN - The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) accused security company G4S of firing some of its members at the prison that Thabo Bester escaped from in order to avoid paying their pension pay-outs.

Union leaders visited the Mangaung correctional facility run by G4S on Wednesday.

They questioned G4S’s decision to fire four junior staff members, saying an escape of that kind could not have been manned by a junior.

Bester escaped from the maximum-security prison in May 2022, where he was serving a life sentence.

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Pocru was convinced that G4S was making junior workers take the fall for his escape in order to protect senior staff and the contract with the Department of Correctional Services.

“G4S will do everything in its power to dismiss more people so that at the end of the contract, they are less responsible for pensions of members,” said Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu- Makhaza.

Cebekhulu-Makhaza said there were other cover-ups by the security company.

“There is another escape after Bester of another... Potgieter... he escaped, and that escape is also being concealed.”

The union joined calls for the contract with G4S to be terminated, saying they would be meeting with Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola to discuss it.