The Eshowe Correctional Centre attack that landed the facility’s head, Vusumuzi Shongwe, in the intensive care unit of a hospital has heightened safety concerns among officials.

A source within the facility in KZN, who asked not to be named as he is not permitted to speak to the media, said Shongwe was ambushed by an inmate serving a life sentence, while walking through one of the passages of the facility this week.

He said the weapon used by the inmate was a fist-sized padlock.

The source said Shongwe was hit on the forehead and the back of his head before he collapsed.

“It was around 09:00 when the incident happened. This is not the first time that an officer gets attacked by inmates and what exacerbates the matter is that we have more than 100 inmates serving life sentences in this facility.

“We are not capacitated to handle such [a large number] of offenders serving life sentences. We are short staffed. We are supposed to have a staff complement of 147 warders but we only have 80 members.

“What makes matters worse is that the department does not seem to be bothered by these incidents. It is also mum about how and when it is planning to resolve the staff-shortage issue,” said the source.

He said in April 2021 another prison official was attacked by an inmate who is also serving a life sentence.

“We are concerned about these incidents and the unions are also aware, but it seems they [unions] are also unable to get the department to do the right thing.

“If one prisoner can attack an official or a warder, what will stop another inmate from attempting to do the same thing? We want the department to take these incidents seriously and to deal with staff shortages urgently,” said the source.

Incident confirmed

Departmental spokesperson Thulani Mdluli confirmed the incident. He revealed that the offender is serving a life term for attempted murder, murder and robbery with aggravated circumstances.

“The offender allegedly assaulted an official, Vusumuzi Shongwe, at Eshowe Correctional Centre on July 5. It is reported that the offender used a padlock and severely injured Shongwe on his head.

“Shongwe was immediately transferred to an external hospital for medical attention. “Minimum force had to be used as enshrined in the Correctional Services Amendment Act [7 of 2021]… to calm an aggressive and violent offender,” said Mdluli.

He added that Shongwe was recovering but would not give more details. He said the inmate sustained injuries and was admitted to hospital.

Responding to the concern over life offenders kept at the facility, Mdluli said in accordance with the reclassification tool as a standard operating procedure to further determine offender’s classification, all lifers servicing sentences at the Eshowe facility have been reclassified in the medium risk category which allow them to be housed at Eshowe, as a medium prison facility.

“Staff shortages remains a national challenge which has been … prioritised with some fruits starting to manifest at some centres,” he said.

An investigation has since been instituted to look into the matter and the prisoner has been charged for the attack and downgraded.