Latest / Drive with John Perlman / A briefing on court decisions pertaining to the G4S tender to operate Mangaung Correctional Center

Transcript

A briefing on court decisions pertaining to the G4S tender to operate Mangaung Correctional Center · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're with John Pullman on 702.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Let's walk the talk.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: 702 Drive, coming up a little bit later in the show,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we are going to, as I said, be taking a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: closer look at that vote, re-vote in Douglas in the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Northern Cape. Anyone out in Karanguwa who might have either
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: witnessed or heard about what happened at the voting station there,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'll try and get the exact details of which voting
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: station station it was, but it might be a story
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: or something that has been part of conversations in your community.
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  Speaker 1: If you can shed some light on what happened, as
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I said a little bit earlier, when I heard those stories,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I found them absolutely chilling because we've had issues in
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  Speaker 1: our elections. We obviously have had the tragic shooting of candidates,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: for example, either people who were incumbents looking to get
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: back in or people who are running for election. So
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not for a minute suggesting everything has been pure
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: as driven snow and squeaky clean. But people storming a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: voting station and destroying already marked ballots. We seem to
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  Speaker 1: me to be over a very, very significant line there.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm keen to see, as we will later, how
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  Speaker 1: the IEC is planning to respond. Babalo Ndenze now is
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  Speaker 1: with us, joining us on the line from Parliament. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: I said we're just going to find out What the
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  Speaker 1: portfolio on correctional services has been told in regard to
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  Speaker 1: the Mongolian Correctional Centre, who's going to run it after
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  Speaker 1: government's significant fallout with the company G4S in the light
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  Speaker 1: of the escape of Thabo Bester. But Balo, very good
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  Speaker 1: afternoon to you. It's a subject that has captured a
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  Speaker 1: lot of interest. What happened in Parliament today? What have
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  Speaker 1: we learned? Good afternoon to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, John. Yes, today basically was a briefing for
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a legal opinion by Parliament on what should happen going
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: forward and whether the Department of Correctional Services, DCS, is
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  Speaker 2: in violation of a court order to transfer these G4S
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  Speaker 2: employees to the department. Now, this transfer of these employees
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  Speaker 2: from G4S, you know, come after the end of the contract,
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  Speaker 2: which was at the end of June. I think the
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  Speaker 2: department took operational control of the Mangawung Centre, which is
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  Speaker 2: really now part of the Huertvlei. It's no longer Mangawung,
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  Speaker 2: it's part of the Huertvlei Correctional Centre. A bit of
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  Speaker 2: a rebrand there as well. So these employees were supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be in the department, but this never happened. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, there were some court proceedings at the Labour Court.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the unions took the department on, as well as,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Solidarity also took this matter to court on
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  Speaker 2: behalf of these employees. Right. To get them transferred, you know, accordingly.
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  Speaker 2: But there were appeals, you know, there was a second
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  Speaker 2: judgment which also said that, you know, these employees must
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  Speaker 2: be transferred. And, you know, now basically the legal opinion
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  Speaker 2: from Parliament... has found that the department is in contempt
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  Speaker 2: of court for not processing this or facilitating this transfer.
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  Speaker 2: We do know that, you know, the Mangowong Centre was
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  Speaker 2: at the centre of the Tabo Pesta escape. Some of
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  Speaker 2: the employees from G4S were implicated in that BESTA escape.
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  Speaker 2: The department had earlier wanted to terminate the contract earlier
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  Speaker 2: on after the BESTA matter came to light, but they
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  Speaker 2: decided to let the contract play out. And so this
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  Speaker 2: is just... I guess, John, an administrative matter between G4S
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  Speaker 2: and the department. Now, G4S has also come to Parliament
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  Speaker 2: as well to ask the committee to assist and compel
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  Speaker 2: the department. But the legal opinion also states that Parliament
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  Speaker 2: really has a limited, you know, they can't really do much.
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  Speaker 2: They can't instruct the department to do certain things. because
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  Speaker 2: G4S is asking for them to intervene. So that's where
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  Speaker 2: we are at the moment. Peter Hunewald, the minister, saying
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  Speaker 2: that the matter is still pending. It's not entirely concluded.
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  Speaker 2: So they are not really forced to transfer these people
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  Speaker 2: immediately because there's a further appeal. And he's trying to
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  Speaker 2: tell the committee that, you know, we will comply with
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  Speaker 2: this order once we've exhausted all our avenues, John.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Babalo and Denze. Yeah, it was a big,
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  Speaker 1: big story. Government said, okay, we're unhappy with G4S. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to take it over. And then all the details
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  Speaker 1: start playing out, just as Babalo has described. 28 minutes
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  Speaker 1: past three.