It costs the state over R460 per day to incarcerate a single prisoner.
Photo for illustration. Picture: Polokwane Review
South Africa and Zimbabwe have moved to strengthen cooperation in correctional services.
Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald and Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi, held a meeting on Wednesday.
The engagement took place ahead of the South Africa-Zimbabwe Bi-National Commission and the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Friday. The agreement is expected to deepen cooperation in justice and correctional services while contributing to regional integration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said the Department of Correctional Services on Thursday night.
The MoU identifies several strategic areas of cooperation. These include technical cooperation on information management; exchange of information relating to prisons and correctional services; and promotion of prison self-sufficiency through agricultural and industrial production initiatives.
“The agreement will also establish a framework for cooperation on the interstate transfer of offenders between South Africa and Zimbabwe. This is a matter of mutual importance given the number of citizens from both countries serving sentences across their respective borders,” said the department.
This step could reduce South Africa’s prison overcrowding and expenditure on prisoners.
South Africa has also signed another prisoner transfer agreement with Botswana.
“Such bilateral agreements have the potential to ease pressure on correctional facilities, reduce incarceration costs and strengthen rehabilitation by allowing offenders to remain closer to their families and their support networks,” confirmed chairperson of the portfolio committee on correctional services, Kgomotso Ramolobeng, in June.
Prisoner numbers in South Africa
As of June, the total inmate population across South Africa‘s 243 correctional centres is 170 518. This includes 62 927 remand detainees who are still awaiting trial or awaiting the conclusion of their court cases. The number also includes 422 state patients who are incarcerated in correctional facilities instead of psychiatric hospitals. Sentenced inmates are 107 169, with a bed capacity of 107 054.
Those still awaiting trial include 14 640 foreign nationals. SA’s prisons hold 13 266 sentenced foreigners. This brings the total number of foreign nationals in SA’s prisons to 27 906.
In another parliamentary meeting, Ernest Hendricks of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) raised concerns that the South African prison system is in crisis.
He noted that foreign nationals make up about 15% of the correctional centre population, costing taxpayers an estimated R11 million per day.
“Our prisons are being used to compensate for failures in our courts, bail system and immigration system,” he added.
It costs the state over R460 per day to incarcerate a single prisoner.
