Overcrowding in prisons remains a concern - Parly

During the 2023/24 financial year, the department housed 156,000 inmates, while there were only over 105,000 approved bed spaces in correctional facilities nationwide.

Committee chair Anthea Ramolobeng told a media briefing in Parliament on Tuesday that the department is also responsible for over 55,000 remanded detainees.

This contributes to 36% of the prison population.

"A number of issues which contribute to this problem of overcrowding include inmates who have been given bail but are unable to pay, remand detainees who have been detained without the option of bail, court disapproval on the Section 63A application due to the nature of the crime committed, states patients who should be in mental institutions but are instead incarcerated  in correctional centres."

Ramolobeng added that more than 22,000 foreign nationals are locked up in the country’s prisons.

A total of 690 are serving life sentences.

"The committee also found 2,912 foreign national inmates in Modapi Correctional Facility, while we're in Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Facility, there were 2,394  foreign nationals, and in Johannesburg Correctional Facility, which is formerly known as Sun City, we have found 4,709 foreign national inmates."

Speaking the same briefing, chairperson of the police committee Ian Cameron said Parliament will probe factional fighting within crime intelligence and the purchase of a Pretoria hotel for its operations.

He said the committee doesn’t agree with the moratorium on new appointments.

"While the committee does not fully agree with the moratorium placed on recruitment or questions certain motives behind it, we welcome the steps to review the division and believe it is very important. The recent revelation of the purchase of a R23 million hotel in Pretoria will be interrogated by the committee and the Joint Standing Committee of Intelligence."

ALSO READ