In the first days after the Department of Correctional Services took over the Mangaung maximum-security prison from private operator G4S, a convoy of more than 30 vehicles carrying former G4S staff was refused entry when the staff reported for duty. That is the account given by DA MPs who were on an oversight visit at the time.
Four months later, Parliament's own legal adviser has told MPs that those workers are still owed jobs, and that the department's refusal to give them is a breach of the law.
Bulelani Simane, Parliament's legal adviser, told the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services on 10 November that the department had exhausted its avenues of appeal against a second judgment ordering it to comply with an earlier Labour Court order. In his view, as long as the department fails to transfer the G4S employees, "it remains in contempt of court".
Minister Pieter Groenewald disagreed. He said the matter is still pending until a final court order is made after a further appeal.
What the courts have said
The sequence of rulings runs against the department.
On 30 April 2026 the Labour Court held that the takeover of the prison, now renamed Grootvlei Maximum Correctional Centre, was a transfer under section 197 of the Labour Relations Act. That provision moves employees automatically to a new operator on existing terms. The G4S staff were due to transfer on 1 July.
On 18 June the Labour Court dismissed the department's urgent application to suspend that order. On 17 August Judge Tapiwa Gandidze dismissed its appeal, finding no reasonable prospects of success. The judge also found the state's explanation for filing late "not candid" and refused condonation. The judgment says former employees must be absorbed on terms "not less favourable" than those they had before the G4S contract ended.
Committee chair Kgomotso Ramolobeng says the department's application for leave to appeal has been rejected, and that the committee will ensure it complies with court orders.
The workers in between
Instead of absorbing the staff, the department ran a public recruitment process. Hundreds of former G4S employees applied. The Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (Popcru) accused the department in June of using that process to circumvent the court order, and threatened a contempt application.
The Citizen reported in August that nearly 200 former employees said they had been left without salaries, retrenchment letters or certainty about their future. EFF MP Sam Matlatse wrote to the minister demanding to know whether and when the workers would be reinstated, and on what legal grounds the department would refuse. The Citizen said it had asked the department for comment and received no response in that report.
Why the resistance
The department has not said in these reports why it prefers recruitment to transfer. One reason the committee itself raised earlier is cost: G4S staff are paid more than department staff, which the committee said could cause difficulties if they transfer on the same terms.
That matters beyond the pay packets. Section 197 exists so that workers cannot be stripped of their terms when a contract changes hands. If the state declines to follow it, private employers watching are entitled to ask why they should.
A prison with a history
The state took the prison back after the contract expired. The fallout between G4S and the department goes back to the 2022 escape of Thabo Bester from this facility. A parliamentary committee visit in August raised concerns about medication, food safety and staffing at the renamed prison.
The department told MPs earlier this year it had planned for every eventuality. It also told them that similar litigation often ends up in the highest court.
Open questions
The reports reviewed do not say how many former G4S employees are still unplaced, or whether any contempt application has been filed. Nor do they explain what happens if the department's further appeal fails.
A prison that failed under a private operator is now run by a department that Parliament's lawyer says is ignoring a court. MPs will want to know who answers for that.
