Note to Editors: Please see attached soundbite by Kabelo Kgobisa MP

The Democratic Alliance has written to the Minister for Correctional Services, to insist that he addresses the failing security at our prisons, and to enquire on his plans to address this problem.

The DA also calls on the Department of Correctional Services to urgently reinforce security at the country's correctional facilities. The dilapidated state of security measures poses a grave risk to inmates, officials, and citizens at large.

The Sunday Times headline story on 24 November 2024 highlights the threat posed by the smuggling of contraband into correctional centres, as inmates with cell-phones are now coordinating criminal activity outside of correctional centres. This appears to have been the case in the widely reported Lusikisiki mass shooting on 28 September 2024.

Yesterday the Minister of Police described the coordination of external criminal activity from inside of prisons as a national concern.

The scale of the problem was evident during an oversight visit by DA members of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services to Worcester Correctional Centre last week. Security is not up to scratch, and this is mirrored at other correctional centres, where oversight visits at Helderstroom, Leeuwkop, and Goodwood revealed that lack of security allows the smuggling of contraband into facilities.

Enough is enough, and it is time that our prisons return to being places where security, rules, and order are observed.

The DA will therefore put a series of probing parliamentary questions to Minister Groenewald on the instances of contraband entering prisons, how it happened, what investigations have revealed, and what steps have been taken to stop this.

It is the constitutional duty of government to ensure the safety of inmates and correctional service staff, as well as that of communities at large, especially those surrounding these facilities.