Misery Merchants, my book about a private prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, was published in February 2020 in South Africa by Jacana Media. The book details a 7-year investigation into Mangaung prison, a maximum-security correctional facility run by British/Danish multinational security provider G4S.

I uncover widespread use of electroshocking, forced medication with anti-psychotic drugs, lengthy isolation of inmates and suspicious deaths. 

In 2013, the situation in the prison spun out of control completely, following a strike by prison officers, which meant state had to take back control of the prison for ten months. This, however, did not lead to any real consequences for the company. 

The government was supposed to investigate the allegations of abuse and release a report on its findings, but to this day, it has not been published. The department of correctional services has effectively covered up for the company. 

The narrative account of this prison investigation follows several characters: Shakes worked as a ‘Ninja’, a member of the armed Emergency Support Team (EST), who are supposed to respond to riots and disturbances in the prison with ‘minimum force’. In reality, however, this team carried out much of the torture, something Shakes speaks about with candour, admitting that ‘what we did was wrong’.

Lwazi, a prison gang general, opens up about the treatment of inmates in the prison and helps me document forced injections, assaults and electroshocking. Dan, a Marxist prison guard and labour union leader, details the frustrations of prison guards. He leads the strike that grinds the prison operation to a standstill. Zach Modise, the then national commissioner of correctional services also features in the book. 

Modise is at the heart of the cover-up, he is appointed temporary head of the prison after his department takes control of the facility. Under his watch, evidence of the widespread torture and abuse go ‘missing’. Modise also starts a personal feud with me, sending me bizarre text messages and slandering me publicly. 

Lastly, I also write about G4S, South Africa’s biggest private employer and one of the biggest private employers worldwide. I track their global security operation, from their cash-in-transit business, to their involvement in warfare and their global prison operation. 

Misery Merchants provides a deeply human view of how prison privatisation affects the lives of often vulnerable people and how a wealthy multinational corporation earned a handsome profit off the prison, while escaping any responsibility for serious human rights violations.