SECURITY problems in South African prisons have prompted the portfolio committee on correctional services to call for the installation of cameras at all prisons facilities, including toilets and holding cells.
The portfolio committee also wants the government to use new technology that will bar all cellphone signals within the prisons premises.
The proposal was revealed by Correctional Services Gauteng commissioner Zacharia Modise, who said officers usually found about 60 to 70 unauthorised cellphones in the premises during searches, particularly at Modderbee, Boksburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Modise said the new security would also improve safety.
"We have started with a detection system. We also have information that crime is sometimes planned from inside prisons using cellphones, then accomplices go and do the crimes on the outside," Modise said.
Chairman of the portfolio committee Vincent Smith said: "Those who are concerned about the right to privacy being violated can debate this issue. But the right to privacy cannot supersede the rights of those being sexually violated in prisons."
Cameras for prisons
SECURITY problems in South African prisons have prompted the portfolio committee on correctional services to call for the installation of cameras at all prisons facilities, including toilets and holding cells.
The portfolio committee also wants the government to use new technology that will bar all cellphone signals within the prisons premises.
The proposal was revealed by Correctional Services Gauteng commissioner Zacharia Modise, who said officers usually found about 60 to 70 unauthorised cellphones in the premises during searches, particularly at Modderbee, Boksburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Modise said the new security would also improve safety.
"We have started with a detection system. We also have information that crime is sometimes planned from inside prisons using cellphones, then accomplices go and do the crimes on the outside," Modise said.
Chairman of the portfolio committee Vincent Smith said: "Those who are concerned about the right to privacy being violated can debate this issue. But the right to privacy cannot supersede the rights of those being sexually violated in prisons."
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