An all-out battle by prison officials to regain control of the Kutama Sinthumule Maximum Security Prison raged on until the early hours of Wednesday morning after more than 1 000 of the country’s most dangerous prisoners took control of one of the four units at the centre and went on the rampage.

The uprising saw the death of at least one prisoner, while numerous other prisoners as well as prison warders sustained injuries. It is said that the incident is by far the worst case of prison violence ever experienced in the region.

The prisoners apparently managed to take control of the unit, because of the absence of a large number of prison warders who are currently on strike. This resulted in the prison having to function with the help of only a handful of prison warders.

As the violence erupted early on Tuesday evening, prison warders literally had to run for their lives to escape the violent rampaging crowd of prisoners. Four officials, among them a senior prison official, were trapped as prisoners closed off their escape route and they had to seek refuge in one of the control rooms. For a while, their presence inside the hot zone went undetected as they managed to establish radio contact with officials on the outside. The situation changed dramatically, however, after prisoners managed to loot some of the prison warders’ two-way radios.

Shortly after discovering the presence of the four warders deep in the heart of the conflict area, the prisoners tried to force the four warders from their place of hiding by setting fire to the control room. The four officials’ terrifying ordeal raged on for close to three hours and they almost suffocated in the thick smoke. It was only after a tremendous show of force by prison officials on the outside that the four stranded warders managed to escape under cover of teargas and heavy shotgun fire that sent hundreds of rubber bullets into the rowdy crowd. Prison officials fought off the crowd for several hours as they tried to gain access to the rest of the prison. It is said that the damage caused by the prisoners could run into millions.

From a distance, thick clouds of smoke could be seen billowing in the dark night sky as a continuous stream of reinforcements arrived. Even the Transvaal Agricultural Union’s farm support group was called in to help patrol the prison perimeter to combat any effort by inmates to escape.

In a press release on Wednesday, the managing director of South African Custodial Management (SACM), Mr Stephen Korabie, confirmed that the situation had been brought under control. He reassured the public and the surrounding communities that every step had been taken to guarantee public safety and ensure the continued safe custody of offenders with the assistance of the Department of Correctional Services.