BLOEMFONTEIN – The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) confirmed the acceptance of its urgent application in the Labour Court against the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), with the hearing set for Thursday, 9 July.

Sibongile Ramahlokoane, spokesperson for the union in Free State, said that the union’s legal team filed the application on an urgent basis on Wednesday, 1 July concerning job security of the more than 500 workers affected by the department’s takeover of the Mangaung Correctional Centre.

The prison has been renamed Grootvlei Maximum Correctional Centre following the transition effective from 1 July. This comes after a 25-year public-private partnership (PPP) between the department, Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC) and security firm G4S — a partnership that officially ended on 30 June.

Ramahlokoane explained that the urgent application was triggered by the department locking out affected workers on the day of taking over on 1 July, further pointing out that the action was in violation of a binding court order.

“The Labour Court order stipulates that Section 197 of the LRA applies to the transfer, including the absorption of 500-plus workers employed at the centre since June 2001 under G4S. The department proceeded without giving effect to the rights and protections of affected workers as required by law,” she said.

On 18 June, the department lost in the Labour Appeal Court its bid to appeal the absorption of the workers with full benefits, thereby staying the execution of the initial judgment made on 30 April in favour of the union. POPCRU and G4S had previously approached the Labour Court seeking a declaratory order that applies to the transfer, ensuring that employees are absorbed by the department upon its takeover of the facility.

The department advertised 668 centre-based posts — seemingly to replace the 500-plus union employees employed for the duration of the PPP contract, which began on 30 June 2001 at the centre. This is the prison where convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester, known as the Facebook Rapist, escaped on 3 May 2022 with the assistance of certain officials.

Also read: State takes over notorious Mangaung prison as private contract ends