Cape Town - Money, cellphones and dagga pipes was among the contraband confiscated from inmates during a raid at the Goodwood Correctional Centre yesterday, where an inmate went viral on social media for showing prisoners living the “soft life” at the facility.
The surprise raid at 6am followed the surfacing of the video this week shared on TikTok by Zimbabwean national Bornface Banks, who boasted that inmates got to live for free without paying for rent, electricity, toiletries, food and education.
The national commissioner of Correctional Services, Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, attended the raid, where officers at the facility searched Section G6, where Banks was housed before his subsequent transfer to another maximum security facility. Thobakgale said 56 cellphones were seized in six days.
After the raid, the commissioner told the officers that there were no excuses for what had happened.
“I was invited to this facility by the video of one of the inmates here. You have allowed inmates to utilise contraband in the centre … If you knew about this, why did you not give out the information so we can stop this?
“Why did no one stop this when he (Banks) was in the courtyard shooting a TikTok video during the day?
“There will be action. Goodwood is now on the map because of this.
“You can’t want to be remembered like that, that during your time there was this clip because we didn’t do the basics. I have issued a circular on this matter and, beyond this, there will be action,” Thobakgale said.
“We are the last line of defence in the justice system. (There is) no excuse for what happened. Don’t try to make excuses. We search every day but an inmate records videos over a period of six months. That’s a fact.”
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Banks was admitted at the Goodwood Correctional Centre on June 19 following allegations of kidnapping.
“(It’s) important to highlight that this remandee has also been charged with murder, extortion and possession of a firearm. Banks has been in custody for a total of 669 days. His first date of admission was September 14, 2022, and he has since been in and out of the facility. This does detail the type of a character that we are dealing with.
“A searching exercise was conducted on July 15, and the cellphone used by inmate Banks was confiscated.
“What we have since established is that the cellphone had an active TikTok account and a number of videos posted on June 5, June 27 and July 8 respectively.
“Action taken is that he has been charged in terms of Section 23 of the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 as amended for illegal possession of a cellphone.
“Inmate Banks has also been transferred to a Maximum Correctional Facility within the Western Region as he is due to appear in court on October 9 for a case of kidnapping,” said Nxumalo.
Cape Argus