The South African Custodial Management (SACM) service, which operates under the name the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre, has taken the Makhado Municipality to task with the office of the MEC of the Department of Health and Social Development, Dr Norman Mabasa, on issues of an “underdeveloped and problematic dumping site”.

The dumping site is situated behind the prison facility and, according to the prison management, "the main concern is the prevalence of flies and mosquitoes at the site and at the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre".

In a letter to Mabasa, the SACM's managing director, Mr Pieter Jordaan, says that the problematic situation at the centre is a health threat to offenders, prison staff and the residents. “The outbreak of illnesses such as typhoid fever, cholera, shigelloses, salmonellae, polio as well as malaria is a risk that needs to be managed,” Jordaan wrote.

The prison management fears that the continuing problem at the dumping site could negatively affect the quality of the prison's borehole, which provides water for at least 3024 sentenced offenders and a large number of staff.

“The local municipality and Vhembe District [Municipality] have, for a number of consecutive months, not been able to provide the facility with bulk water,” Jordaan stated. “The facility has been totally dependent on boreholes to supply the correctional centre with water as there is a water shortage in the area.”

According to the prison management, the problem has been addressed with the mayor and the prison has assisted the municipality "with machinery (cost at about R20 000) in an attempt to improve the situation at the site, with little effect”.

The spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Development, Sinenhlanhla Gumede, confirmed that the MEC's office had received a letter of grievance and a request for intervention from SACM's director on 6 March. “We can confirm that the prison's letter reached us, and that we are referring the matter to the Department of Environmental Affairs,” said Gumede.

When contacted for comment, the spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, said that the municipality was aware of the situation at the dumping site and that they were attending to the problem. “The main cause was the breakdown of our equipment (compactor), but now it's in operation,” Bobodi said on Monday. “And the only solution to flies would be to cover accumulated waste with soil to eradicate fly-breeding places.”