South African prisons house 46% more inmates than they were designed for, according to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald, further adding that his department identified an “urgent need” to “construct/regain” 50 000 bed spaces to address overcrowding concerns.
This revelation came in response to a Parliamentary question posed by Patriotic Alliance (PA) National Assembly (NA) Member of Parliament (MP) Marlon Daniel who inquired into measures meant to address issues relating to overcrowding in prisons.
“This requires the construction of 100 new Correctional Centres with a bed space capacity of 500 each, or alternatively 50 new Correctional Centres with a bed space of 1000 each,” noted Groenewald.
On the positive side, the Minister revealed that during the period from September 2023 to July 2024, the department saw bed space capacity increase by 2 788.
Further, Groenewald stated that new prisons will cost the South African taxpayer an estimated R36 billion. This comes from a costing which has it that a 1000 inmate bed space medium correctional centre comes to between R680 000 and R725 000 per bed space. Alternatively, a 500 inmate facility comes in at between R725 000 and R810 000 per bed space. For high/maximum security centres the bed space cost starts at R1 080 000 and can rise to R1 400 000.
Groenewald moted however that “the current fiscal environment is not accommodative of this requirement.”
Currently, the department has 69 infrastructure projects registered, comprised of maintenance and capital projects. However, to deal with over crowding, two new build projects are underway. One is at Burgersdorp in Eastern Cape, where a project for the construction of a 500-bed Correctional Centre was awarded during April 2022, and it is expected to be finalised during 2026. The second project, at Parys in Free State, “the construction contract was terminated during February 2023, due to poor performance of the contractor.” Fortunately, the Minister added that “the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) appointed a replacement contractor during December 2023,” and the site is also expected to be completed in 2026.