The Constitutional Court reserved judgment this week in a case that brings into question the Department of Correctional Services' ability to prevent and manage the spread of Tuberculosis in the country's prison facilities.
In 2004 a former Pollsmoor Prison awaiting-trial inmate, Dudley Lee, who was subsequently acquitted of his alleged crimes, successfully litigated against the Department of Correctional Services in the Western Cape High Court after contracting tuberculosis during his four year detention. The court found that prison authorities were unable to guard against the spread of TB at Pollsmoor. It also decided that Lee was entitled to a damages claim against Correctional Services. But the department appealed the decision. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein strangely found that the Correctional Services Department was negligent in its TB prevention programme, but also ruled that there was no conclusive evidence to say that Lee contracted tuberculosis from someone within the prison system. That is a technical legal issue that Lee appealed to the Constitutional Court, in Johannesburg, to decide on this week.
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