03 Oct 2017

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi has implored prison service staff to display “the highest level of discipline” at all times.

Mr Kgathi said this when addressing Machaneng and Mahalapye prisons and college staff in Mahalapye recently.

He said prison service was a disciplined organisation and was classified as a member of the armed forces.

Mr Kgathi said members of the disciplined forces were held in high standard than ordinary members of the public and therefore urged them to live to the standard expected of all prison officers at all times.

He said the purpose of his visit was to share with them how they could work together to make their organisation a better place.

Mr Kgathi appealed to the officers to come up with innovative ways of addressing challenges and how well they could improve their services.

He explained that since January 2017 to date, 25 prisoners  escaped from prison.

The minister said 18 of those escaped from the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants in January.

He noted that these incidents had a telling effect on the reputation of the prison service and pleaded with the officers that the escape should not have happened and should be avoided going forward.

Mr Kgathi said since January 2017 to date, 17 officers had been dismissed from the service for various disciplinary violations.

He said some violations included officers working in cahoots with prisoners to facilitate illegal activities inside prison such as allowing contraband into prison.

Mr Kgathi said the ministry was concerned about the number of road traffic accidents involving prison motor vehicles, noting that such was a concern to government.

He said as a ministry that relied heavily on transport, they could not afford to lose vehicles as soon as they received them or kept losing some when they received new ones.

The minister said in 2016 alone, 28 motor vehicles allocated to the department of prisons were involved in road accidents and since January 2017 to date, 13 vehicles belonging to the prisons department had already been involved in road traffic accidents.

He said this affected the mobility of the department and its capacity to function optimally was compromised.

He therefore appealed to the officers to improve on this and heighten supervision and hold those involved in motor vehicle road traffic accidents to account.

Mr Kgathi also briefed officers about the Interstate Transfer Bill of 2016 and the Prisons Bill of 2016.

He said Parliament passed the Interstate Transfer Bill of 2016 into law, with its objective being to facilitate prisoners between Botswana and certain countries with which Botswana had entered into agreement.

He said this would let prisoners serve the remainder of their sentences in their own countries or in countries in which they had community ties.

Mr Kgathi said this would decrease prisoners’ population in local prisons.

Regarding the Prisons Act, he said the amendment now gave the commissioner of Prisons to be an accounting officer in his own right and would be answerable for the efficient and effective operations of the service.

For his part, Botswana Prisons Services commissioner, Mr Silas Motlalekgosi appreciated government for the changes made in the organisation and the support they continued to receive from the community. ENDS