News24 reports that the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) suspects that this week’s attack on three prison warders could be a revenge attack by members of the 28s for the death of a gang member during clashes with guards about three years ago.
The warders were stabbed by two inmates at the Eastern Cape's St Alban's Prison on Wednesday morning. Popcru's Eastern Cape secretary, Xolani Prusente, said the attack might be linked to the violent clashes on 30 August 2019 during which a guard was stabbed in the neck and an inmate was killed at the Gqeberha prison. "The attack was done by the 28s gang, who, according to other inmates, were trying to avenge an offender killed in the 2019 incident," said Prusente. During the 2019 attack, the guard was stabbed in the neck in front of his eight horrified colleagues. He survived the attack. Department of Correctional Services (DCS) spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo confirmed that all three guards in the latest attack had since been discharged from hospital. The inmates, who allegedly both belong to the 28s gang, used makeshift knives made from steel removed from their own beds to stab the three guards as breakfast was being served to the 353 inmates at the C section of the prison's medium B facility. The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services mandated an investigation into the incident, while the DCS vowed to launch a full-scale investigation into the stabbings.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Malibongwe Dayimani at News24 (subscriber access only)
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