Embattled private prison threatens to erupt again

03 July 2019 - 07:00
By Mpumzi Zuzile
South African Custodial Management (SACM) owns the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre in Limpopo, one of only two privately run prisons in the country.
Image: 123RF/Stockstudio44 South African Custodial Management (SACM) owns the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre in Limpopo, one of only two privately run prisons in the country.

Two years ago, inmates at the Kutama Sinthumule prison in Limpopo went on the rampage, burning down a section of the facility amid claims that prison guards left them to starve in locked cells as they went on strike.

Now, two years later, tensions threaten to flare up again as the Union for Police, Security and Corrections Organisation has accused the prison’s owners of unfair labour practice.