More than 25 000 foreigners in South African prisons

[Nat Quinn]

The Minister of Correctional Services, Dr. Pieter Groenewald, announced to Parliament yesterday that more than 25 000 foreign nationals are currently being held in South African prisons.

According to Groenewald, each prisoner costs the taxpayer R463 per day and the deportation of these prisoners could save R4,2 billion annually.

Many of the foreign detainees are awaiting trial, some of whom have been waiting to be tried for nearly ten years. The country’s prisons have an overcrowding rate of 48% with more than 156,000 inmates, while there are only 108,000 beds.

The minister stressed that the shortage of beds remains a major challenge for the department.

According to him, there is enough room for the 103,000 sentenced prisoners, but a further 60,000 detainees are putting the system under pressure.

 

SOURCE:More than 25 000 foreigners in South African prisons | Pretoria FM

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