Backlog at Weskoppies under fire
Trial awaiting prisoners from other provinces have to wait eight months for psychiatric evaluation.
Awaiting trial prisoners who need psychiatric evaluation will have to wait eight months to be evaluated, the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.
DA Gauteng health spokesperson, Jack Bloom, said 79 prisoners had to await their turn to be admitted to Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria West because only 14 out of the 42 available beds were in use.
“Unlike the speedy assessment provided to Oscar Pistorius, 79 awaiting trial prisoners from Mpumalanga and North West provinces will wait eight months for a forensic observation.”
He said the waiting period for 11 Gauteng prisoners to be evaluated was two months.
Bloom said this information was furnished by health MEC Qendani Mahlangu in response to a question in the provincial legislature.
“According to Mahlangu, 28 out of 42 forensic observation beds at Weskoppies are unoccupied because ‘a lack of SAPS guarding makes it impossible to utilize the section to its full capacity as it is mainly populated by high-risk awaiting trial prisoners’.”
He said Mahlangu also blamed time-consuming procedures in the assessment of people accused of serious crimes for the backlog. They had to undergo two or three evaluations by psychiatrists before the process was completed.
“It is distressing that delays in court trials are caused because there are not enough police to assist the hospital in guarding dangerous prisoners,” Bloom said.
“This can surely be fixed fairly easily so that all available beds are used to speed up trials where psychiatric evaluation is required.”
Rekord could not obtain a response from the health department and minister of police before going to print.
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