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Correctional Services bakeries now cover over 60% of prisoners' annual bread requirements across the country.
Image for illustrative purposes. Picture: iStock
The Department of Correctional Services’ (DCS) bakeries are proving to be a valuable cost-cutting programme.
DCS officials gave a presentation to their portfolio committee on Tuesday, where they outlined the programmes’ growing scope.
Other items on the department’s cost-cutting agenda include re-evaluating the use of consultants, with a presentation explaining why external resources have been so heavily relied upon.
Prison labour
DCS’ first bakery was established in 1992 at the C-Max facility, now known as Kgosi Mampuru II.
The programme has since grown to 11 correctional facilities, with a 12th recently approved for test baking operations from June.
Five of the current 11 were established in the last 10 years, but new bakeries are planned for eight more facilities, including Nigel, Krugersdorp, Brandvlei, Upington and Overberg.
Production is able to cover over 60% of the bread requirements for inmates nationally. Last year it saved R27.4 million in the cost of feeding prisoners.
The bakeries combined produce an average of 426 000 loaves of bread every month and are on course for a record financial year.
Prisoners paid for working in bakeries
These 11 bakeries provide food to almost 45 other correctional facilities and juvenile detention centres in the provinces where they are located.
Bakeries require roughly 190 prisoners to work across the 11 facilities per day and each inmate is compensated for their labour.
“Offender gratuity ranges from R2 per day to R9 per day depending on the level,” DCS’ presentation stated.
Inflated costs of food suppliers
The prison-made products are baked with ingredients sourced through a supplier bidding process, which has come under scrutiny in recent months.
A recent audit flagged five food supplier deals worth R4.4 million all signed during 2024 that came at inflated costs.
The department has resolved to implement new “fair and uniform” pricing negotiations to ensure the department is getting value for money.
“The essence of the matter is to ensure a quality product, but through the most efficient and cheapest means for the department; and that should be right through the government,” stated Minister Pieter Groenewald.
R70 million budgeted for consultants
The department has been trimming financial fat after the Auditor-General of South Africa highlighted exorbitant fees paid to consultants.
In the 2023/24, DCS paid R13.6 million to 18 consultants for a combined 225 days and the department had almost R70 million more budgeted for consultants until 2026/27.
DCS explained that consultants were needed to cover a skills shortage, capacity constraints and an inability for the department to handle “project complexity”.
A reduction strategy has since been implemented which involves enhancing the department’s human capacity by improving the skills of staff.
“We must be absolutely sure that when we appoint a consultant, that it is necessary, that we don’t have our own expertise,” said Groenewald.
“There are certain circumstances where you have no option, but we will look very carefully into that to see what money we can save,” he concluded.
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