The Mangaung Prison ( af, Mangaung-gevangenis) is a privately managed prison in
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...
,
Free State,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The prison is managed by the company
G4S
G4S is a British Multinational corporation, multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a ran ...
as part of a consortium. The
South African Department of Correctional Services
The Department of Correctional Services is a department of the South African government. It is responsible for running South Africa's prison system. The department has about 34,000 staff and is responsible for the administration of 240 prisons, ...
signed a 25-year contract with the consortium in 2000. The prison can accommodate around 3,000 prisoners.
In October 2013, the department temporarily took over the prison, after G4S "lost effective control of the facility". In October, a female custodian with 13 years of experience was taken hostage by prisoners. She was later saved unharmed by a special police task force.
2022 escape
After staging a
self-immolation
The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...
in his cell on May 3, 2022,
Thabo Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Center with the apparent help of the guards.
Documentary
In 2019 the documentary 'Prison for profit' was published about problems and use of excessive force in the prison. Investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins has mentioned that the South African minister for correctional services
S'bu Ndebele
Sibusiso Joel "S'bu" Ndebele (born 17 October 1948) is the former Minister of Correctional Services serving from 2012 to 2014. He has been on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1997, and was the Pr ...
in 2013 would arrange an investigation which would be published within 30 days. The report was not yet released in 2019.
See also
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Brandvlei Correctional Centre
Brandvlei Correctional Centre (formerly Brandvlei Prison) is a prison situated on the bank of the Brandvlei Dam near Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa. It contains a maximum-security unit, a medium-security unit, and a juvenile unit. The facili ...
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Drakenstein Correctional Centre
Drakenstein Correctional Centre (formerly Victor Verster Prison) is a low-security prison between Paarl and Franschhoek, on the R301 road 5 km from the R45 Huguenot Road, in the valley of the Dwars River in the Western Cape of South Africa. ...
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Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre
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Pollsmoor Prison
Pollsmoor Prison, officially known as Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. Pollsmoor is a maximum security penal facility that continues to hold some of South Africa's most dangerous c ...
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Moses Sithole
Moses Sithole (born 17 November 1964) is a South African serial killer and rapist who committed the ABC Murders, so named because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and finished in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg. Sithole ...
serial killer
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Westville Prison
References
Buildings and structures in Bloemfontein
Prisons in South Africa
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