The government in this country spends R11.7 million a day to house foreigners in the country’s prisons. Once they are released on parole, the Department of Corrections does not hesitate to send them back to their countries in an instant.
This was revealed by the Minister of Correctional Services, Dr. Pieter Groenewald, who told the Parliamentary Committee that 26,000 immigrants were held in prisons in this country. He said he knows that some who are released on amnesty, come back to the country.
“The campaign to return immigrants to their countries continues as it costs us R11.7 million a day to keep them in our institutions. When they are released, we return them to their countries as there is cooperation with other countries. I know some of them come back,” he said.
He just said this, he is putting pressure on the government to bring back those who have defected to this country. There are marches in different places to dismiss those who have left as June 30 is coming, which is the day they must be gone from this country.
Groenewald complained about the lack of money in the Ministry, and said that if it were up to him, those released on amnesty would have been fitted with belts to monitor their movements. He said this after reports released by officials of the Department, that there were 28,000 people who were released on amnesty, whose whereabouts are unknown.
“If it were up to me, everyone who wants to be released by amnesty, would pay for a belt to wear that will monitor his whereabouts at all times. Now I am not doing it for myself and I respect people’s rights,” he said.
The Deputy Commissioner responsible for the rehabilitation of those who are about to be released, Gustav Wilson, said that there are many things that must be done for those who have been released on amnesty.
Some of them include not drinking alcohol and taking drugs.
“Statistics indicate that there are 8,303 persons who were released on amnesty whose whereabouts were unknown from the 2021/2022 to 2025/2026 fiscal year. Of these 6,000 we were able to track their whereabouts. The figures reported that those who were released on amnesty but whose whereabouts are unknown are misleading.”
He said that before the year 1994, it was difficult to find out where those who were released on amnesty were, and he said that now there is a team responsible for doing this work.
Although there is this team, he complained that there are not enough workers to do this work. The Ministry told the committee that they are working with the police as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs to search for those who have been released on amnesty.
It has also been revealed that those who are released on parole face many problems in society as some are not accepted to participate and it is difficult to find a job because of their sentences.