Two female correctional service officials have been dismissed after investigations into an explicit video that went viral last month showing one of the officials having sex with an inmate.
The incident took place at the Ncome correctional facility in KwaZulu-Nata, South Africa according to a report by Times Live.
In a statement on Wednesday, the correctional services department (DCS) said the official in the video, as well as her colleague who allowed her office to be used for the sexual act, were both dismissed after a disciplinary process.
DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the inmate involved was also not spared and had been reclassified into the maximum category.
He lost privileges and has been moved to another facility. DCS wants to reiterate that coitus acts and other forms of sexual attachment or illicit romance between officials and inmates can never be allowed nor tolerated. The code of conduct is explicit and those found to have breached it will face the consequences. DCS will not hesitate to act against any form of transgressions.
The graphic video that went viral on social media shows the warder passionately kissing the inmate in what looks like an office inside the prison before they get half-naked and get into the act.
Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said a video with scenes of alleged sexual activity between the official and an inmate at the Ncome Correctional Centre has left the department appalled, embarrassed, and gutted.
The officers involved were immediately identified and were subjected to a disciplinary process with immediate effect. The officers were immediately suspended and now, have lost their jobs.
Also, the probe looked into how the pair managed to walk to and gain access to the office and at the origin of the cellphone — regarded as contraband in prison. In a radio interview, Nxumalo said:
We do not want them [cellphones] in our centres. This is a classic case, a cellphone was used to record this. It’s completely unpalatable. I don’t think that the nation would deserve to see something like that, captured in the video, and you are correct, both of them [were] fully aware they are recording this thing.
THE GUARDIAN
