Police rescue jail's staff from prisoners

Three prison employees held hostage at a Bloemfontein prison have been rescued by a police task force team.

Frikkie Venter, the managing director of the prison's operator, G4S Care and Justice Services, said the task force had freed the hostages at 5am on Tuesday.

"A special task team relieved the hostages and inmates from the exercise area where they barricaded themselves," he said.

The employees and the 10 inmates had not been seriously injured during the police action, he said.

"The employees were brought to a hospital for observations but we expect them to be released by today (Tuesday)."

The group of 10 inmates in the high-security section of the Mangaung Correctional Centre outside Bloemfontein set fire to their cells on Monday afternoon.

They later barricaded themselves in the exercise area, holding three employees hostage.

The fire was extinguished by the prison's fire response team with the assistance of the city fire brigade.

The prison's incident response team tried to resolve the situation on Monday, but the police's Special Task Force was called in during the night.

Venter said his company would be discussing the incident with the Department of Correctional Services on Tuesday.

The 10 inmates had apparently been unhappy that they could not be transferred to a medium-security correctional centre near their homes.

"However, their behaviour does not justify a transfer to a medium-security prison and I cannot support it," Venter said, adding that the state should not be held hostage by criminals making demands.

National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele applauded the task force for "an outstanding high-level intervention that led to the swift release of hostages in about five minutes without opening fire".

He said the police would continue to squeeze the space for criminals to "zero".

"We will throw fear to criminals and bring confidence to communities," said Cele. "We will forever encourage police officers to act decisively in all crime combating operations and only open fire when under threat.

"The mere fact that a large group of prisoners armed with a variety of weapons and obviously hell-bent on making mischief could be arrested without a shot being fired is testimony to the expertise and diligence of our officers." - Sapa