During his budget speech in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald highlighted key factors driving severe prison overcrowding, including budget constraints, a flawed parole system and an ineffective bail process that leaves many remand detainees behind bars for failing to afford minimal bail amounts, reports Cape town Etc .
Overcrowding remains a significant challenge exacerbated by those who cannot afford to pay small amounts of bail, Groenewald stated, reflecting on the dire state of South Africas correctional facilities.
An unsettling reality, he noted, is that the current detention system is increasingly overwhelmed, with more than 60 000 remand detainees contributing to this crisis.
The minister pointed out that despite having a sufficient number of bed spaces 107 067 beds for 104 550 sentenced inmates, the 60 000 remand detainees push the required capacity to a staggering 166 000.
These figures reveal a system at breaking point, he added.