“Behaviour of this nature cannot go unpunished,” said Singabakho Nxumalo, the national spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services, reacting to three wardens being stabbed at the Eastern Cape’s biggest prison on Wednesday morning. 

Nxumalo confirmed that three warders were stabbed at the St Albans Medium B facility by two inmates. He said the men were treated at the prison hospital and later taken to outside hospitals for treatment.  

Nxumalo added that the Department of Correctional Services would, “take action against the perpetrators. A full-scale investigation will be conducted internally and a criminal case is to be registered with the SAPS.” 

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Emerantia Cupido from the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services said they had been informed of the stabbings and had “mandated an investigation into the incident”. 

On average, Eastern Cape prisons are overcrowded by 63%, while St Albans Medium B, according to numbers released in July, was overcrowded by 44%.  

Egon Oswald represented more than 200 prisoners alleged to have been violently beaten after the fatal stabbing of a warden at the same prison in 2005.  

Oswald told this reporter: “There was a stabbing of a warden there two weeks ago. Often these stabbings are related to business disputes inside the prison and linked to corruption.” 

On 13 October 2022, Justice Edwin Cameron, when presenting the annual report for the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services to the Portfolio Committee for Justice and Correctional Services, raised serious concerns about the national overcrowding rate — now 31.65% (vs the 2020/2021 rate of 23%). 

The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services’ annual report also showed sharp increases in hunger strikes, attempted suicides and suicides at SA prisons. DM/MC