Kutama fire: Inside the torching of LIMPOPO'S maximum security prison With the privately-run Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein recently coming under sharp focus for the elaborate escape of Facebook rapist Thabo Bester, Eyewitness News can reveal disturbing allegations surfacing from another privately-run facility in Limpopo - the American-operated Kutama-Sinthumule Correctional Centre (KSCC).
PART 1: HOW THE FIRE STARTED
Allegations contained in an explosive memorandum by inmates from an American-run private prison in South Africa fuelled unrest, resulting in a major portion of the Limpopo prison being torched by inmates.
On 7 August, inmates led a revolt at Kutama-Sinthumule Correctional Centre (KSCC) - a maximum prison facility situated in Makhado, Limpopo - which houses 3,024 high-risk offenders.
The majority of the inmates at KSCC are serving life sentences - otherwise known as lifers.
Inmates at KSCC told Eyewitness News they started the fire after submitting a memorandum to prison management and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) on 27 July.
The memorandum was signed by 50 inmates, and contained allegations of a dysfunctional healthcare system, assault and torture, food nutrition, and sodomy.
The inmates gave prison officials 14 days to respond to their grievances.
But shortly after submitting it, it is alleged those who signed the memorandum were called in and victimised by prison management.
This resulted in the inmates rioting.
Inmates used a communal lighter attached to a wall in the courtyard of Green Block to start the fires.
During a visit to KSCC two weeks ago, an inmate told Eyewitness News how the fires spread so quickly.
“They lit their foam mattresses and ran from cell to cell lighting each mattress. That’s how the fire spread so quickly to other cells. It was chaos.”
Inmates shouted “implement the memorandum” to DSC officials during the visit.
An inmate, who has since been transferred to another facility following the fire, said the entire ordeal was traumatic.
He said he would “rather die” than go back to KSCC.
“I won’t go back to Kutuma, I’d rather die. Right now, I’m living with relief. The burning of the prison, fighting each other, the stampede amongst the inmates - I’ve lost my mind a little bit because I’ve been there for quite some time - I don’t want to lie.”
The majority of the inmates have since been transferred to other facilities.
DCS minister Ronald Lamola told Eyewitness News they were aware of the memorandum.
“We were aware that there was a memorandum at that time. By the time when the riot started, the 14 days had not yet lapsed. The department had already appointed the team to investigate, and the inmates were aware, even internally, that there is a process to investigate the allegations that were contained in the memorandum.”
PART 2: “SEX FOR FOOD”
In their memorandum, inmates allege they are forced to buy food from the kitchen, with a piece of steak, chicken, or chops costing between R40 to R45.
This is despite the concession contract between DCS and the South African Custodial Management (SACM), a subsidiary of the GEO Group, stating that inmates should be served nutritional meals.
An October 2022 Parliamentary report noted that KSCC had a daily spend of R412.19 per offender for detention, food and clothing - equating to almost R450 million annually.
It remains unclear how much of that budget is allocated to food nutrition.
DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the contract stipulates what must be paid to a service provider. It does not break it down per item. A contractor may decide to commission a particular service in-house or outside. DCS does not get involved in internal arrangements by contractors.
Inmates allege they are served polony, pap, viennas, and hard-boiled eggs.
A former KSCC prison warden, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged prison management were “profit orientated.”
“From 2002, they have been issuing prisoners with nutritional food. A prisoner during supper would get his portion of chicken, sometimes they will also get minced meat, or beef. But these things have changed now. The polony things - it has been three years since they have been doing that.”
He said due to inmates having to pay for food, many were allegedly driven to committing sexual acts to afford it.
“You’ll find an inmate involved with another inmate who's got money and can afford to buy him good food at the kitchen.”
Glynnis Marriday of Exclusive Mediators, a non-profit organisation that assists inmates with escalating their grievances to relevant departments, alleges rape was a major issue at KSCC, and was not being taken seriously.
“New inmates get taken in and are basically told when you are new and you're a young inmate, you are going to be the wife to whoever's been here the longest, just so to comfort them because they've been here forever and a day. ‘So, get used to the idea’.”
She said the families of the victims of the prison fire wanted closure.
Jackson Hadebe and Siyabonga Nkululeko Tsongane were allegedly shot during the commotion following the fire.
“They were shot in their backs as they were running away from the fire. DCS is not willing to assist the family with funeral arrangements or compensation for what they had to pay.”
Marriday called on DCS to release the CCTV surveillance footage on the day of the fire.
Dr Karen Booyens, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Pretoria, said prison rape is a disturbing trend happening in all South African correctional centres, and is an underreported crime shrouded in secrecy.
“The mere fact that inmates refer to it as sodomy shows that they have not been properly informed about the severity and the impact of this crime on the male victim. I can say with certainty that prison rape is not part of the rehab programmes presented to offenders.”
In the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) 2021/22 Annual Report, only 26 cases of prison rape were reported.
According to an offender, some rehabilitation programmes were being managed by inmates.
“Those who don’t want to work, to sit in the office the whole day - they give it to prisoners. Even I myself was facilitating some of the tourism subjects, so some of the inmates don’t go (for it).”
A former employee confirmed staff were uninterested in rehabilitation programmes.
“Rehab programmes were not monitored in a way that they were beneficial to inmates, because staff members employed to work on those programmes make inmates facilitate the programs. So, it’s easy to manipulate the system.”
PART 3: THE 2009 PRISON ESCAPE
Concerns around prison management at KSCC date back to the early 2000s.
In December 2009, an escape took place at the prison, where two inmates absconded while in custody.
Chico Naibe, a Zimbabwean national, and Johannes Antonio Khoza, a Mozambican national, escaped from KSCC on 15 December 2009.
They were serving life sentences for various crimes, which included murder, robbery, and rape.
According to DCS, they escaped by cutting the window frame using a hacksaw blade, and used clothing to jump over the high security perimeter fence.
Sources claim the electric fence was switched off on the day.
Naibe was rearrested, but Khoza remains at large.
Khoza was sentenced for murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
He was sentenced in Johannesburg in February 2006, and served a little more than 45 months before his escape.
According to DCS, five officials were formally charged and dismissed following the escape.
DCS acting national commissioner Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale said they have not been happy about the management of KSCC.
“We have not been entirely happy. If you go through our records, you will find there are penalties we have imposed on the management, and those penalties are governed by the contract on different transgressions that management would have found themselves having committed. The issue of the escape, there was a penalty that was meted out to the contractor.”