• Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said it costs the government about R500 a day to feed and house an inmate, while citizens get R350 a month in grants.

• He told MPs the government's priorities are wrong and that working people should not be treated worse than convicted criminals.

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said prisoners live better than many ordinary South Africans.

Speaking before Parliament's Ad Hoc Committee in Cape Town on Wednesday, Mkhwanazi said the government spends far more money on inmates than on people who obey the law.

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He said it costs the state about R500 a day to care for each prisoner, while poor citizens outside prison survive on a R350 monthly social grant.

"Come to prison," he said. "You get free education, free food and shelter. You never run out of water."

Mkhwanazi said life outside prison is much harder for people who try to make an honest living. "Outside of prison, you live in a shack and sometimes have to rob someone to get bread to eat at night. That's the reality," he said.

He told MPs that the country's priorities are "upside down" and called for a review of the budget.

"The rights of a person who has been found guilty and is incarcerated must be totally different from a person who's working on the street," he said.

Mkhwanazi said Parliament should examine how much money is spent on prisoners compared to people who work and pay taxes.

His comments have caused a heated debate online. Some South Africans agreed that criminals are treated better than citizens who follow the law, while others said his figures were not accurate.