The Department of Corrections spends more than R11 million a day, to feed foreign prisoners kept in prisons in this country.
The Minister of the Department, Dr. Pieter Groenewald, wants the law to be amended so that foreign prisoners will be returned to their countries. He said this in a video he posted on social media.
Groenewald said that there are a lot of foreign prisoners in prisons in this country.
“We have about 26,000 prisoners. These prisoners include those who have been sentenced and those who are still awaiting trial.”
Groenewald said that the Ministry spends millions of dollars to feed foreign prisoners who are held in prisons in this country.
“Taxpayers pay R463 to feed one prisoner a day. It costs more than R11 million a day to feed prisoners from foreign countries.”
Groenewald said that if it were up to him, these prisoners would be sent back to their countries to be imprisoned there. He complained that there are laws that make it difficult for the Department to return immigration prisoners to their countries.
He said: “There are laws that prevent us from being able to return prisoners to their countries, but I want the law to be amended. There is a plan that I have started in the hope that by next year there will be progress. I want them to return to their countries.”
Groenewald’s speech comes as soon as there is an old complaint about the overcrowding of the country’s prisons.
Groenewald’s response to Parliament revealed that the country’s prisons are overcrowded. This response from February, revealed that the prisoners in prisons in this country are more than 50% of the number.
The answer shows that there are 168,672 prisoners instead of 107,000. Here in KwaZulu-Natal, there are 26,723 prisoners instead of 17,854.
The provinces with the most prisons are Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng.
In the Eastern Cape it is overcrowded by 83%, in the Western Cape it is overcrowded by 71%, and in Gauteng it is overcrowded by 70%.
There is also a complaint about the overcrowding of illegal immigrants. There are many ongoing campaigns to stop illegal immigrants from schools, clinics and workplaces.