The handover is complicated by an ongoing Labour Court ruling.
Mangaung Correctional Centre. Picture: Gallo Images/Volksblad/Mlungisi Louw
With less than four weeks to go before taking over the Mangaung Correctional Centre on 1 July 2026, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) faces a staffing crisis, a legal battle and a mountain of unprocessed job applications.
Members of the portfolio committee on correctional services on Tuesday criticised the timeline for the handover.
With more than 40 000 CVs and only 668 positions advertised for a single facility, the department insisted it could handle the workload with an impending deadline of less than a month.
Mangaung 25-year contract comes to a turbulent end
The clock is ticking on one of South Africa’s most contentious public-private partnerships.
The DCS is set to assume full management of the Mangaung Correctional Centre, a maximum-security facility housing nearly 3 000 inmates, when its 25-year concession contract with Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC) expires on 30 June 2026.
The contract, which allowed BCC to subcontract operations to security multinational G4S, was concluded in 2001. Its end, however, has been anything but routine.
The catalyst for the accelerated breakdown was the 2023 escape of high-profile offender Thabo Bester.
“The end of this contract cannot be described as harmonious,” DA MP Janho Engelbrecht told the portfolio committee.
“The trust was entirely broken between DCS and BCC and G4S because the department felt they were incompetent in managing a centre like this.”
The National Commissioner, Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, confirmed that DCS has maintained a presence at Mangaung since invoking Section 112 of the Correctional Services Act in 2023, appointing a temporary manager to stabilise operations.
“Mangaung has been under temporary management since March 2023,” he told the committee. “It will not be the first time that we are introduced to the management of Mangaung.”
The legal minefield
The handover is complicated by an active Labour Court ruling. On 30 April 2026, the court found that the DCS taking over the prison constituted a transfer of a going concern under Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act.
This means the department is legally obliged to absorb existing G4S personnel. The DCS immediately appealed.
Opposition members were pointed in their criticism of the timeline.
“There is almost three weeks’ gap between the judgment on 30 April and your instruction to the State Attorney on 19 May,” ANC MP Erald Cloete told the committee.
“The Department of Correctional Services must account for that delay and indicate what impact it has had on recruitment decisions, engagements, organised labour and overall takeover preparations.”
Correctional Services Minister Dr Pieter Groenewald acknowledged the frustration but defended the department’s position.
“We have a valid case, so we will continue,” he said, adding that navigating the State Attorney’s office introduced unavoidable delays.
“Sometimes we receive notice from the office of the State Attorney after a court case where there was a court order against DCS, but we were not even informed about it. But we deal with those matters.”
A recruitment drive overwhelmed by its own success
In April, DCS advertised 668 positions specifically for the Mangaung facility. By 1 June, it had received more than 24 000 applications.
The volume proved unmanageable, with thousands of applications initially stuck unread on an email server.
“The idea that you guys are going to go through 44 000 CVs by the 30th of June is kinda funny, and you know it,” said DA MP Kabelo Kgobisa-Ngcaba.
“Given how long your recruitment processes take, it is nuts that you are coming to the portfolio committee to tell us you’re going to be ready.”
Thobakgale pushed back, noting that a cross-listing process completed on 1 June had significantly reduced the workload.
The DCS’s Human Resources head, Linda Bond, confirmed that 54 interview panels had been assembled with 269 panellists, and that shortlisting for security and case officers was already underway.
“Much as we don’t have a good history in terms of our selection processes, here we will be undertaking an accelerated process which should be completed by the 30th of June,” she said.
Contingency plans and confidence under pressure
To bridge the gap if appointments are not finalised in time, DCS has approved the secondment of 200 officials from other facilities for three months, in addition to 76 horizontal transfers already deployed since 1 May.
Committee members questioned whether this simply relocated the risk.
“You’re diluting security at stable facilities to put out a fire at Mangaung,” Engelbrecht argued. “DCS aren’t solving a staffing shortage. They are just moving the risk around on the map.”
Thobakgale dismissed fears of a destabilised system.
“We already have a complement of those that came from college, they are already in our correctional facilities as additional capacity. That is the trade-off that is going to happen,” he explained, adding that the arrangement was temporary and contingent on recruitment outcomes.
Despite persistent pressure from committee members to concede unreadiness, the National Commissioner held firm.
“I wish today [were] actually the 1st of July, 2026, because the discussion is pre-empting that. Rest assured, we are ready,” he said. The minister echoed his confidence: “I am confident that the National Commissioner has looked into all the possibilities and has put his head on the block. We will do our utmost best to ensure a smooth transition.”
