South Africa currently has two private prisons, one of them infamous for the Thabo Bester escape, and the Department of Correctional Services will not renew their contracts when they lapse.
This was the gist of Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald’s response to a question asked by MKP (uMkhonto weSizwe Party) National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP) Edward Nzimande. The Gauteng public representative of what is the official opposition in South Africa’s seventh democratic administration sought clarification on the issue of private prisons as well as risks and benefits involved.
The private prisons are the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, managed and operated by British security company G4S, and the Sinthumule Correctional Centre outside Louis Trichardt, where United States (US) private corrections company CEO Group has the management contract.
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