By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola will this week, announce government decision on the contract of the correctional services department with security company G4S.
Lamola was speaking on the sidelines of a state visit by Namibian President Hage Geingob at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Thursday.
The private security company runs the Mangaung Prison facility in Bloemfontein in a 25-year public-private partnership with the government.
The contract is expected to run until 2026.
It is understood that the government pays service providers at least R1 billion a year to run the facilities.
There has been a growing call for the government to terminate the contract with G4S after the dramatic escape of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.
He escaped from the maximum-security prison in May last year by faking his own death and was rearrested in Tanzania earlier this month.
He was assisted by employees at the prison and his medical doctor accomplice.
Lamola said the government has to consider all the implications before terminating any contractual agreements.
“We have read the contract,” Lamola said.
“We are seeking legal advice on the contract because if we just act on emotions and become reckless, and just wake up and cancel the contract, the possibility of us government being labelled for the R2 billion remaining for the contract remains very large and high.
If there is a contract that exists between two parties, you need to follow the terms of the contract or whatever could have been there that necessitate the cancellation of the contract, and it is for that reason that during the course of this week, we will definitely announce to society that we have received legal advice and this is the view,” added Lamola.
Lamola says the government also has to access its capacity to take over before making any decisions.
“The second thing is not just whether we cancel or not which is a decision we are going to take in regard, we also have to access our capacity to take it over if we cancel because there are about 507 employees, it has got more than 2900 inmates, there are facilities, there are systems all those must be run.
So if you just wake up and say you’ve cancelled you must have the capacity to take over, so we are also accessing that second aspect and we will also announce before the end of this week that this is the decision with regard to the cancellation and our assessment of our own capacity to take over if indeed we decide to cancel,”
Lamola also promised to cooperate with German authorities during the trial of former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste.
The German prosecutors have applied for a warrant of arrest after the 62-year-old former CEO of the scandal-ridden firm failed to show up for his first appearance before the Oldenburg district court on Tuesday.
Jooste stands accused of inciting to manipulate balance sheets of the multinational firm to the tune of 1.15 billion euros.
The retailer was plunged into crisis in 2017 amid allegations of fraud and corruption by senior executives.
Jooste’s lawyer, Bernd Gross, told the court that his client was unable to travel from South Africa, citing that his travel documents were with the South African authorities.
The Hawks and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) have denied that officers confiscated Jooste’s passport.