AFTER months of uncertainty regarding their future at Qalakabusha Correctional Services, three officers have been dismissed from work for ‘insubordination and inciting violence’.
National Commissioner Tom Moyane visited Qalakabusha to address staff in January and was interrupted by one staff member who raised his hand to ask a question, but was silenced and told to sit down.
Another staff member said ‘I’m a bit disturbed National Commissioner and traumatised at your tone. There are a lot of problems at Qalakabusha and we expect the Commissioner to listen to us. I had hope, but now I have lost all hope.’
The three staff members, Noluthando Dube, Lungi Buthelezi and Bongani Mtsweni, were then expelled with their salaries frozen with immediate effect the next day.
Speaking to the Zululand Observer, Mtsweni said, ‘We were called in on Monday, 2 September and handed dismissal letters.
‘No due processes were followed by the prison authorities. No investigations were undertaken regarding the allegations against us, neither were there any hearing procedures or charges laid against us.
‘All they did when we arrived at Qalakabusha on Monday was to hand us our dismissal letters, and nothing else was said thereafter.’
A list of questions was sent to the Department of Correctional Services, but no comment has been received from them so far.
