'Foreign convicts must be jailed in their countries'

Foreign criminals sentenced to jail time should be deported to their countries of origin to serve their terms, says correctional services minister Pieter Groenewald.

He hopes the home affairs department can assist with deportations of foreign offenders granted parole.

Groenewald’s department spends R11m a day on inmates from other countries, he told parliament’s correctional services portfolio committee on Tuesday.

“The SA taxpayer foots the bill for more than 24,000 foreigners in correctional facilities. Calculated at R463 a day, this results in an expense of R11,112,000 per day.

“We are exploring various solutions, including diplomatic approaches.”

Anna Molepo, the department’s chief deputy commissioner of community corrections, previously told the committee the number of sentenced foreigners in SA prisons was 12,676 in January 2025, which was 12.4% of the sentenced inmate population.

The committee was briefed in February on the challenges the department faces, including the legal issues that affect deportation orders and the processing of foreigners. The department said it was working to ensure the Immigration Act aligns with the relevant frameworks.

ActionSA MP Dereleen James called for accelerated deportation policies.

“Prisoners live in relative comfort while our communities are being destroyed, broken, under-resourced and forgotten,” James said, arguing that the R463 daily cost per inmate could fund 555,600 loaves of bread – enough to provide 277,800 households with two loaves each.

After Groenewald's briefing, the committee queried the price the department paid for bread procured for inmates.

In the 2024/2025 financial year, 5.27-million loaves of bread were required/ordered from correctional services’ bakeries and about 5-million were baked – a shortfall of 270,870. These loaves had to be procured from outside suppliers.

It cost the department R7.91 to bake a loaf of bread compared with R13.36 to buy it from an outside supplier. The price from the external supplier has since increased to R22.95 a loaf for the 2025/2026 financial year.

Members of the committee expressed dissatisfaction at this, saying the department was now paying more per loaf for the bulk supply of bread than a normal South African pays in a retail shop.

“It cannot be that we are paying so much. We note and welcome the input by the minister that the procedure of appointment of contractors is being reworked, as the price is excessive,” said committee chair Kgomotso Ramolobeng.

The department told MPs it was working towards self-sufficiency in baking its own bread, which has led to savings of more than R27.4m for the 2024/2025 financial year. The department has 11 bakeries in six regions and a 12th is about to open.

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