ANA reports that the Public Servants Association (PSA) on Monday blasted the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) over inadequate staffing after a female prison warder was stabbed to death during a hostage ordeal at the Goedemoed Medium Correctional Centre.  

PSA general manager Ivan Fredericks said an inmate at the prison serving a life sentence held two female warders, aged 33 and 35, hostage on Friday.  The 35-year-old was stabbed to death during the hostage ordeal.  Her colleague was released after hours of negotiations with the prisoner.  “The PSA believes that these attacks could have been avoided if sufficient officials were on duty.  Goedemoed Center functions over weekends with only half of its staff establishment because of the shift pattern that applies at the centre.  How many lives must be sacrificed before the department wakes up and ensures that it complies with its own member-inmate-ratio document and adequate staffing?” Fredericks asked.  The deceased warder was identified as Nomsa Joyce Stuurman.  She was allegedly stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors.  It has been further alleged that her colleague was raped by the inmate.  Fredericks said understaffing at the prison was a “ticking time bomb”.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at The Citizen
• Read too, Rapist and killer inmate ‘had applied for parole’, at SowetanLive

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