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The Acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services Mr Zach Modise says the department will start withdrawing in phases from Mangaung Correctional Centre by the of July 2014 after running the troubled public-private-partnership center for 10 months.

Mr Modise made the announcement in Cape Town today during a senior Executive Management meeting called the National Management Committee (NATMANCO) that is composed of all Chief Deputy Commissioners and Regional Commissioners (at Deputy Director General level) of the department.

He said the complex investigation has been completed and a report was handed over to Bloemfontein Corrections Contract (BCC), a G4 Securicor company, which was given 21 days to provide a reply to issues flagged in the report for which they need to account.

A series of incidents preceded the takeover of the Mangaung Correctional Centre by the Department of Correctional Services in October 2013. The incidents included riots, hostage taking, stabbing of officials and the dismissal of over 330 officials who were replaced by insufficiently trained officials. As the department’s mandate is to contribute to public safety through safe custody, rehabilitation and social re-integration, it was compelled to take over the running of the centre. The Regional Commissioner of Gauteng Mr Zach Modise (now acting National Commissioner) was assigned at the time to lead the departmental intervention and the investigation into the Mangaung Correctional Centre chaos.

Acting National Commissioner Modise said the department had succeeded in stabilising the situation at the centre and in restoring effective control, discipline and rehabilitation programmes. In terms of the report the company running the Mangaung Correctional Center has a number of instances of violations of the contract and the Correctional Services Act they should account for. They have been given up to the end of July 2014 to provide a reply to the report. Mr Modise said the department will step the supervision of the privately run correctional centres to ensure improved compliance with the terms of the contact and the legislation going forward.