The Western Cape high court has ruled that the ministry of justice and correctional services is liable to pay damages to an inmate who was assaulted and had boiling water poured down his throat while being detained at Goodwood Prison in 2018.
In a judgment delivered on October 1, judge Daniel Thulare found that the correctional services department failed in its duty of care to protect Nathaniel Hendricks from violence by other inmates.
Hendricks, who was awaiting trial on a murder charge at the time, was a senior member of the 28 prison gang.
Upon his admission to Goodwood Prison, he chose to be placed in a cell with members of his own gang and rival gangs including the 26 and 27 gangs.
The cell operated under a hierarchy in which senior gang members occupied positions near the back, giving Hendricks proximity to a kettle and electricity points used to charge illegally obtained cellphones.
On April 8 2018, members of Hendricks’ own gang led by another 28-gang member known as Mabra, attacked him.
They held him down, forced his mouth open and poured boiling water from the kettle into his mouth while also striking him with metal crutches belonging to a disabled inmate in the cell.
Members of the rival 26 gang intervened to prevent further injury and prison officials later removed Hendricks and took him to hospital.
The court heard that the kettle provided under Goodwood Prison’s “privilege package system” was intended for inmates to prepare tea, coffee and instant meals.
The “privilege package system” was intended to provide remand detainees with limited recreational or personal privileges to make detention more bearable.
In practice, this included items to prepare food or drink. The court found several problems with this:
1. Violation of regulations: Standing order 2, Chapter 6, Section 1.12 explicitly prohibits prisoners from using electrical appliances for food preparation. Regulation 26A(2) of the Correctional Services Act also bars food that needs preparation in remand detention facilities. Providing a kettle directly contradicted these rules.
2. Lack of risk assessment: The prison authorities did not properly assess the dangers of placing a kettle in a cell with high-risk gang members. Boiling water is a known weapon in prison violence and no proper safety evaluation was done.
3. Misapplication of the privilege package: The prison claimed the kettle was allowed under the privilege system for humanitarian purposes, but the court ruled this system cannot override laws or standing orders. Essentially, the kettle should never have been provided under those conditions, especially in a cell with rival gang members.
Experts testified that the provision of a kettle to high-risk remand detainees was unsafe and violated standing order regulations under the Correctional Services Act and the prison’s own manuals.
Prof Lukas Muntingh, an expert in criminal justice reform and pre-trial detention, told the court that prison authorities have a positive duty to prevent violence among inmates.
He said the use of boiling water as a weapon was known in prison environments and that supplying a kettle without a proper risk assessment represented a serious lapse in duty.
Thulare agreed, saying: “The provision of the kettle was inherently dangerous, yet the second defendant proceeded to provide it outside the regulatory framework and without any proper assessment. The applicant sustained injury as a consequence of that risk.”
In the absence of any record showing that prison officials properly assessed the risk, the judge concluded that the department acted negligently by supplying the kettle which ultimately enabled the attack.
The court found the minister was liable for the damages sustained by Hendricks as a result of the assault in Goodwood prison. It also ordered the minister liable for costs, including those of Muntingh.
TimesLIVE
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