The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) in the Free State says it will be challenging the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) invocation of Section 197, which left some of its members jobless.
About 250 former employees of the then G4S run Mangaung Correctional Facility were left without jobs when DCS officially took over the facility on the 1st of July.
POPCRU alongside its members held a closed meeting in Bloemfontein.
Union’s Deputy General Secretary, Boitumelo Pheleo, says that all workers employed under G4S should have been automatically transferred to the DCS without having to apply for jobs.
Pheleo added that they have taken the matter to the labour court.
“Allowing members to apply for posts is actually illegal. It is an unlawful process because section 197 says the DCS is taking over, as a going concern. This means that nobody was supposed to apply for any post, they were supposed to take these members as employees of DSC from G4S.”
WATCH | POPCU General Secretary Xolani Prusente weighs in on the Department of Correctional Services taking over the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, Free State, and the impact this has had on union members. pic.twitter.com/QFa3lLZ8B3
— SABC News (@SABCNews) July 2, 2026
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