A group of prisoners have gone to court in a bid to have the management of Johannesburg prison investigated by the Hawks for alleged corruption‚ theft and fraud.

Fourteen inmates lodged their application last month at the High Court in Johannesburg.

The prisoners‚ being held in Johannesburg prison’s Medium-B section‚ are demanding that the sport‚ recreational‚ art and culture (SRAC) committee at the correctional services facility be reimbursed an estimated R2-million which they claim was “stolen” by prison management.

They claim the “theft” dates back to 2011 and that money was siphoned from the prison shop bank account.

The money‚ according to internal correctional services prison management memos seen by The Times‚ is meant to be used for prisoner rehabilitation and recreation programmes. This includes buying sports and gym equipment.

Documents submitted to the court show that inmates are demanding that:

- The money due to the committee‚ plus interest dating back to 2011‚ is paid back

- Management of the prison shop be handed back to the committee; and

- Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha launch an investigation involving the Hawks into why money due to the committee was never paid over.

They have also asked for the cost of the legal application to be awarded to them‚ “in order to deter and vindicate (our) wounded feelings“.

Inmates going to court are from the prison’s Participative Management Committee.

There was an agreement‚ they said‚ between prison management and prisoners that 5% of the shop’s profits would be used to top up funds set aside by correctional services for prisoners’ recreation programmes. The shop sells a variety of items‚ such as sweets‚ toiletries‚ biscuits‚ hot beverages and cigarettes.

Committee chairman Sifiso Ndlovu said in an affidavit that the shop sold goods to inmates but prison officials were reaping the benefits‚ which contravened the Correctional Services Act.

Leaked financial documents indicated that last month the shop made a R100‚000 profit.

Prisoners claim that based on financial statements they had scrutinised‚ prison management owed at least R2 million.

The department of correctional services intends opposing the application but is taking the allegations raised seriously.

“It is against this backdrop that it intends to launch an investigation into the matter to determine whether the correct internal processes pertaining to the allocation of funds to offenders’ SRAC programme are being followed as determined by the Johannesburg Correctional Facility’s general club policy‚” said spokesman Ofentse Morwane.

Morwane said that no correctional services officials were selling items to offenders.

“The tuck shops inside the correctional centres belong to the General Clubs of the Correctional Facilities.

“The allocated funds to the offender’s recreation club is solely for recreational activities and not to individual offenders.”

Morwane said the allegations made by prisoners were an internal matter and there was no need to involve external law enforcement agencies‚ unless the internal investigation determined otherwise.