By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Department of Correctional Services (DCS) National Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale confirmed that four Goodwood Correctional Services warders have been suspended following the death of an inmate.
The suspension comes after Quinton Fortuin’s body was discovered in the mortuary bearing multiple stab wounds and dog bites.
The incident in February saw desperate inmates write letters begging for an investigation into the alleged actions by the Emergency Support Team (EST).
According to two letters received, Fortuin, who is a general of the 26s gang, was embroiled in an argument with wardens and stabbed one of them.
The inmates claim during the scuffle, EST teams arrived and locked Fortuin in a single cell where they continuously beat him before allowing dogs to bite him.
Thobakgale said, there were no compelling reasons not to suspend the prison warders and the internal investigation is ongoing.
SA Police Service (SAPS) are investigating a murder docket following the death of Fortuin, who was declared as deceased on arrival at a medical facility on the evening of February 15, 2025.
Fortuin’s death is not the only one to recently spark questions about what is truly happening in South Africa’s jails.
And this all comes as conditions in correctional centres are under scrutiny.
Last year, in terms of the Goodwood prison, a Parliamentary oversight visit was conducted there — at that stage the overcrowding stood at 53% with 2,497 inmates, and bed space for only 1,651.
Thobakgale acknowledged that while there were honest officials working in dangerous conditions, there were also “even gang members… in uniform”.
In terms of murders in jails, another case has culminated in suspensions, as well as the arrests of prison warders.
Earlier this month, on 16 April, the Department of Correctional Services issued a statement confirming the “unnatural death” of Mpho Mkhumbeni, an inmate at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in the Free State.