South Africa - Pretoria - 23 September 2020 - The Department of Justice and Correctional Services encourages the public to make bookings in order to visit their loved ones in prison as lockdown level one permits prisons visits.Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says more than 34 000 prisoners who were out on parole have violated their parole conditions.
He said most of the cases happened in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The cases reported of parole violations were from 2020 to January this year.
KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of parolees who violated their conditions and it was sitting at 8 265.
In the Western Cape there were 8 221 people who violated their parole conditions outside.
Lamola, who was replying to a written parliamentary question from the DA, said in the Eastern Cape there were 7 672 prisoners who breached their conditions.
The number in Gauteng was 5 539 of people who also got on the wrong side of the Department of Correctional Services by violating their parole conditions.
In both the Free State and Northern Cape a total of 3 357 people were reported to have committed this offence.
Limpopo and North West had the lowest number of violations with 1 606 cases that were reported to correctional services.
Lamola also said there were thousands of cellphones that were confiscated from prisoners from various correctional centres in the country.
This was part of attempts by the department of correctional services to crackdown on contraband in prisons.
Lamola said a number of measures were being taken to deal with the use of cellphones in prisons as inmates were not allowed to.
He said more than 37 000 cellphones were confiscated from the prisoners during the 2022/23 financial year.
He said 24 officials were found to have been involved in helping smuggle cellphones to inmates.
He said actions taken against these officials include written and verbal warnings while two were dismissed and one resigned.
Some of the cases are under investigation.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs