Video of Waterkloof prisoners jail shenanigans

THE Waterkloof Four have been hit by another scandal and two of them have been detained days into their parole after revelations that they binged on alcohol inside prison.

A Correctional Services Department official confirmed that Frikkie du Preez and Christoff Becker had been arrested yesterday after a video published by Rapport newspaper showed them allegedly drinking inside their cell at the Kgosi Mampuru Prison in Pretoria.

They also had a cellphone, the use of which and their partying were also captured on a cellphone. Official spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the Gauteng regional commissioner had launched an investigation.

Wolela said the two parolees, officials and managers on duty would be grilled over the incident.

“Two of the Waterkloof Four, allegedly responsible for smuggling alcohol and having a party inside the centre, have been re-arrested while an investigation is under way.

“The department takes very seriously the allegations carried in the media about the smuggling of alcohol, having a party and covering the party with illegally possessed camera-cellphones,” Wolela said.

Becker, Du Preez, Reinach Tiedt and Gert van Schalkwyk were released on parole on Tuesday.

They were set free after serving half of their 12-year jail terms for killing a homeless man in 2001.

Tiedt and Van Schalkwyk walked out of prison in December 2011 following an administrative bungle that led to the sacking of three senior Correctional Services officials.

They had to return in September last year after the High Court in Pretoria overturned a district magistrate’s decision to convert their sentences to correctional supervision.