Raids reveal scale of gangs and corruption in correctional facilities
Addressing parliament during the department's budget vote in Cape Town on Tuesday, after his first year in the position, Groenewald said unannounced visits and raids were central to exposing the true extent of crime inside facilities.
'Wicked problems can be resolved once we remove the Band-Aid to inspect the wound properly, and we can only address our problems if we recognise their true extent,' he said.
Groenewald said in the past year 466 raids were conducted, three in the past week.
'I have also conducted many unannounced visits at facilities.
'Unannounced visits and raids will increase in the year ahead. We are cleaning our correctional facilities and those aiding smuggling know their days are numbered.'
Since July 2024, officials confiscated 33,874 cellphones, 20,577 sharpened objects, 232kg of drugs, cash totalling R394,450 and 122,407 items linked to alcohol and other substances.
Groenewald said in 2024, 515 correctional officials received final written warnings, 181 were suspended without pay and 146 dismissed for wrongdoing.
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Daily Maverick
17 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Breaking the crime cycle — Bail Fund could ease prison overcrowding
South Africa's prisons are overcrowded by 53%, with remand detainees accounting for almost a third of those incarcerated. While legislative efforts to reduce overcrowding have been ineffective, the Bail Fund could help those who can't afford to pay their bail. Correctional Services Minister Dr Pieter Groenewald has said remand detainees have a direct bearing on prisons' bed capacity, which is one of several factors contributing to prison overcrowding. There are just 107,000 beds in South African prisons, but about 166,000 inmates are housed in the country's 243 correctional centres, resulting in a 53% overcrowding rate. This negatively affects safety and security, gang violence, and the success of rehabilitation programmes. In March this year, Daily Maverick's Caryn Dolley reported that cellphones, alcohol, smoking pipes, drugs and even tattoo machines are passing through South Africa's overcrowded prisons as inmates and corrupt officials collude to form a key part of organised crime networks. Groenewald, speaking during the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) budget vote in July, said there were 107,067 bed spaces available, currently occupied by 104,550 sentenced inmates. There are almost 60,000 remand detainees (those awaiting trial or sentencing), pushing the number of beds needed to around 166,000. The minister stressed that remand detainees significantly contributed to overcrowding, noting that the department had to admit all court-referred persons, regardless of capacity. Currently, 2,530 remand detainees remained in custody solely because they could not afford bail of R1,000 or less, despite having been granted bail by courts. Keeping each of these individuals in custody costs the taxpayer R463 per person per day. Prison overcrowding and high recidivism rates are linked, creating a dangerous cycle. Overcrowded facilities make it impossible to provide adequate living conditions and effective rehabilitation programmes. Without effective rehabilitation, ex-prisoners are more likely to reoffend upon release, which contributes to more overcrowding when they re-enter the prison system. Legal strategies fail to curb overcrowding Another impediment to overcrowding, as heard by the parliamentary correctional services committee on Friday, 25 July, was the low success rate of legislation targeted at reducing overcrowding in correctional facilities around the country. The DCS briefed the committee on the use of Section 49G of the Correctional Services Act (CSA) and Section 62F of the Criminal Procedures Act (CPA) applications. Both sections aim to reduce overcrowding in correctional facilities. Section 49G says a remand detainee may not be detained for more than two years without the matter being brought to the attention of the court. The head of the remand centre must refer the case to the court at least three months before the two-year detention period lapses. If the detainee remains in custody following the initial review, further submissions to the court must be made on an annual basis. Section 62F of the CPA allows courts to impose additional bail conditions, such as placing an accused person under probation or correctional supervision, rather than in remand. Both sections have done little to alleviate overcrowding. The committee heard that Section 62F was underused while the success rate for the 12,283 Section 49G applications in 2022/23 was 1.25% nationally, with the Eastern Cape and Western Cape both indicating a 0% success rate. 'In terms of the outcomes of Section 49G application, especially relating to the Eastern Cape, it's a very serious concern. The committee will raise this with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development that deals with referrals,' said correctional services committee chairperson Kgomotso Ramolobeng. Efforts at solutions The Bail Fund could offer a viable solution to easing overcrowding in correctional facilities. The fund aims to address the injustice faced by remand detainees who cannot afford bail amounts under R1,000 by providing financial assistance. The fund will rely solely on private funding. A pilot project in the Western Cape is being developed to test its feasibility, with eligibility criteria excluding individuals accused of serious crimes such as gender-based violence (GBV). Courts will determine suitability, ensuring beneficiaries do not pose a public risk, have a fixed address and will comply with bail conditions. The fund is led by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (Jics) with support from the Bertha Foundation and other stakeholders. It has produced a feasibility study and raised roughly half of the required pilot money through philanthropy. A trust has been formed to oversee the fund. The next stages are to secure additional funding, designate trustees and finalise eligibility guidelines. Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Service (Jics) inspecting Judge Edwin Cameron has described the more than 2,500 remand detainees who remain in prison because they can't afford bail as 'prisoners of poverty'. He said it was a grave injustice which significantly contributed to South Africa's prison overcrowding problem. Parliamentary committee chairperson Ms Kgomotso Anthea Ramolobeng indicated that committee members agreed that much work needed to be done on the project, including an extensive public participation process to establish whether communities would be in favour of such a fund. 'The committee encouraged Jics to continue with its groundwork on the project with other stakeholders like the South African Police Service and the NPA. It is important to thoroughly engage communities, as offenders on bail will have to go back to families and communities. 'The committee will monitor this space and engage Jics and other stakeholders once it has sight of a more comprehensive plan,' she said. Foreign nationals 'extra burden' To alleviate overcrowding in correctional facilities, Groenewald wants to deport foreign prisoners. More than 12,000 foreign prisoners make up 19% of the remand population, which the minister says contributes to overcrowding. Another about 12,000 are serving sentences, who make up just over 12% of sentenced prisoners. During his budget speech, Groenewald emphasised: 'The South African taxpayer foots the bill for just over 24,000 foreign nationals. Calculated at R463 per day, this results in an expense of R11,112,000 per day. We are currently exploring various solutions, including diplomatic approaches.' He said bilateral engagements with South African Development Community countries to deport offenders who were foreign nationals aimed to ease overcrowding in correctional facilities. The process is already under way, with the Protocol on the Management of Foreign Nationals: Remand Detainees and Persons Detained for Deportation signed by Correctional Services, SAPS, and the Department of Home Affairs. According to the minister, a process is under way to amend the Criminal Procedure Act to enable the deportation of offenders who were foreign nationals. DM
Daily Maverick
08-07-2025
- Daily Maverick
There are just and compassionate alternative solutions to corporal punishment in prisons
Minister for Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald has thrown a hornet's nest at us. Last week he suggested we reintroduce whipping and beating for some offenders, or even alleged offenders, to spare sending them to our overcrowded and often dangerous prisons (corporal punishment). Minister Groenewald seemed to have in mind inmates convicted or suspected of minor offences who cannot afford low amounts of bail. They may often spend long periods in prison awaiting trial and then serving their sentences. For the last nearly six years, I've headed the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (Jics), South Africa's Mandela-era prisons' oversight body. The minister's concerns are real. Our prisons are grossly overcrowded. With bedspace for only 107,000, we jam into them almost 164,000 inmates, – a staggering 53% overcrowding rate. This has devastating consequences for those in detention, for their safety and security, and for running effective rehabilitation programmes. Remand detainees (those not yet convicted) make up a bigger and bigger chunk of the prison population. Over 59,000 people are awaiting trial inside prison. More than 4,000 have been awaiting trial for longer than two years. And, more disturbingly even, some 2,500 are in prison simply because they cannot afford bail amounts of less than R1,000. So the minister is right to jolt us into controversy. His call for alternatives to prison, for both awaiting trial and sentenced inmates, is timely. He cited the example of a man arrested for stealing bread. Often on prisons inspections, I meet inmates imprisoned for petty offences, or for non-violent crimes, like shoplifting, or for possessing small amounts of drugs for personal use. These inmates are not a danger to society. They do not have to be confined and isolated. Crushing them into our overcrowded and often unsanitary prisons, rather than confronting the factors that drove them to crime in the first place, or effectively rehabilitating them, risks exposing them to drugs, gangs and violence. Many of our remand centres function as training sites to recruit youngsters into gangs – or to turn them into practised criminals. So we badly need effective alternatives. But is corporal punishment the answer? The Constitutional Court answered this in 1995. Before it was the startling practice of 'juvenile whipping'. In S v Williams, Justice Pius Langa, a deeply humane man and diffident lawyer, later Chief Justice, led the Court in finding that corporal punishment violates human dignity – and is cruel, inhuman and degrading. 'Corporal punishment involves the intentional infliction of physical pain on a human being by another human being at the instigation of the State… The objective must be to penetrate the levels of tolerance to pain; the result must be a cringing fear, a terror of expectation before the whipping and acute distress which often draws involuntary screams during the infliction. There is no dignity in the act itself; the recipient might struggle against himself to maintain a semblance of dignified suffering or even unconcern; there is no dignity even in the person delivering the punishment.' He concluded powerfully, ' It is a practice which debases everyone involved in it'. Expert evidence convinced the Court that corporal punishment is not an effective deterrent: 'its effect is likely to be coarsening and degrading rather than rehabilitative.' And even deterrence could not justify so humiliating and painful a punishment. The Court dismissed the State's argument that corporal punishment is a necessary alternative because of resource and infrastructure constraints. The Court pointed to other creative, more humane, alternatives to imprisonment – like community service, linked to suspended or postponed sentences, and victim-offender mediation. Counsel for the accused in the Williams case, then-advocate Lee Bozalek, pointed the Court to disturbing class and race implications. Given the huge inequality in our country, most of those likely to experience the State-sanctioned brutality of whipping would be poor black men. So the question whether corporal punishment can be consistent with the society we aspire for – based on human dignity, equality and freedom – has been conclusively answered. It is not. But this does not address the minister's legitimate concerns. Don't long periods in overcrowded, unsanitary prison cells also violate inmates' dignity and endanger them? Yes. They do. Of course. So what is the alternative? Long pre-trial detention is the product of overburdened police, prosecutors, Legal Aid attorneys and courts, all services hollowed out by austerity, inefficiency and corruption. These are systemic problems that corporal punishment will not fix. Instead, we must invest in energising every element of our criminal justice system, so that crime is swiftly and effectively investigated and tried. There is no quick way, no shortcut, no 'magic bullet' to do this. But we can do it. With energy and leadership and determination. We have the talented people. We need to energise and lead them. And there are alternatives to unaffordable cash bail. Jics is setting up a bail fund for low-risk inmates granted small bail amounts they cannot afford. At the same time, Jics supports the SA Law Reform Commission's review of the entire bail system, which we hope will lead to much-needed systemic improvements. And there is more we can do. Some crimes – like sex work, drug use and possession, and many petty offences – should not be crimes at all. For other minor offences, our law already enables non-custodial sentences. These include correctional supervision, community service, fines and restorative justice programmes. Our overworked courts and prosecutors should embrace these alternatives. S v Williams warned that when the State administers violence, it fosters violence and indignity. Quoting a US judge, the Court noted that, 'Our Government is the potent, the omni-present teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.' Our country's history warns us away from more violence, more state-sanctioned brutality. What powerful lessons the State could teach us when, rather than violence or incarceration, it prioritises quick, effective, and – yes – compassionate justice. DM
IOL News
07-07-2025
- IOL News
Correctional Services minister expected to explain 'bring back corporal punishment' proposal to portfolio committee
Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald stresses protecting vulnerable communities, especially women and children, by tightening parole approvals and urges honest dialogue on crime solutions, including revisiting corporal punishment despite its ban since 1996. Image: GCIS Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald will have to explain his recent suggestion that corporal punishment should be revisited to alleviate overcrowding in prisons when he appears before the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services on Tuesday morning. The minister made the remarks when delivering his budget vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday last week. Groenewald was addressing the challenges faced by correctional services, including overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure, a rising number of remand detainees, deteriorating facilities, staff shortages, the presence of crime syndicates and gangs within our institutions, and emerging crime patterns. He said corporal punishment will help ease overcrowding in the country's prisons. Corporal punishment in South African schools was officially banned in 1996. 'If you look at our criminal justice system, and specifically justice, we must start a debate to say, shouldn't we bring back corporal punishment?' Groenewald said. 'A young person who steals 10 loaves of bread will sit in prison for perhaps three years waiting for sentencing. Go think (whether we should) bring it back... to address this issue,' Groenewald said in Afrikaans. During the briefing by the Peace and Security Cluster Committee Chairpersons on Monday, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, Kgomotso Anthea Ramolobeng, said that they will be expecting Groenewald to explain the rationale behind his remarks. She explained that there were largely legal milestones which led to the abolition of corporal punishment and that the decision to abolish it stemmed from a violation of human rights. 'What is my view? I believe that it is in the best interest of whoever is in the executive or whoever is in government to abide by the Constitution of the country. Why has the minister taken a step to say, we should perhaps open debates on corporal punishment? We have yet to be taken into (his) confidence, as the portfolio committee. 'I can assure you that tomorrow we do have a Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services meeting from 9.30am, and we will probe the minister on why he made those assertions, and what informs them? So that he takes us through that,' Ramolobeng said. 'There are other measures that we can try to deal with, or come up with alternatively, that must deal with overcrowding, outside of corporal punishment, especially of those who have less (serious) crimes that leads to them having bail of R300." Ramolobeng added that what could come out of the discussion on corporal punishment is perhaps one focused on community services for those who have committed petty crimes. 'Put more focus on rehabilitative outlined programmes that talk to the current challenges we are facing.' [email protected]
