In the three weeks several surprise raids on prisons in the Pretoria area were conducted by Correctional Services Department staff searching for contraband. The raids on Kgosi Mampuru in Pretoria and Odi Correctional Services Centre in Mabopane also revealed the extent to which criminals operate even when they are supposedly locked up in a secure facility..
In the most high profile case, Vusimusi ‘The Cat’ Matlala was caught with a mobile phone in his cell despite being at the centre of the public controversy around senior SAPS corruption allegations and his alleged association with two police ministers – Bheki Cele and Senzo Mchunu. Officials said they hoped the confiscated phone would shed further light on the corruption allegations which have prompted the President to set up a special commission and shake up the top ranks of the service.
This has highlighted the fact that organized crime has Correctional Services within its grip, fuelling fears that prisons are being used as branch offices by cartels, and that many criminal operations are directed from behind bars.
During the raid on Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Facility in Pretoria on 8 July 2025, Commissioner Makgothi Thobakhali (pictured above) told journalists he was shocked by what he found. Inmates had re-organized accommodation to suit themselves, had their own routers and appeared to enjoy unfettered access to drugs – an undisclosed amount of cannabis and crystal meths were seized during the raid.
The Department has admitted that criminal activities are being plotted by convicted criminals in jail who have contact with the outside world. On 1 July 2025, Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald told MP’s that the Department wanted to restore its participation in in the state security governance structures in order to block stop convicts from communicating with gangsters on the outside.
“We currently face numerous regulatory obstacles, which result in the department not being able to utilise signal jammers or intercept communication” he said. “If we succeed with being restored to a state security structure, it will greatly assist in the fight against organised criminal activities which are taking place in our correctional facilities.”
He said that if Correctional Services could be part of state security structures, it would yield the following:
- Enhanced access to critical intelligence and security technologies;
- Stronger integration with other security departments in tactical operations and planning;
- Improved professionalisation and specialised training suited to high-risk environments;
- A positive impact on staff morale and retention of skilled personnel; and
- More appropriate budget alignment with the Department’s core security mandate.
The DA says there have been numerous allegations that criminal syndicates are being run from inside South Africa’s jails, operating with the assistance of Correctional Services staff. DA MP Kabelo Kgobisa-Ngcaba says the “scourge of contraband has reached crisis levels’ and has called for cabinet intervention.
The table below provided by Correctional Services is the response to the DA question in December 2024 asking for details of contraband items seized from South African prisons during the previous 12 months.
Drugs
933 893 kg
Dagga pipes
441
Cell Phones
41 853
Official uniforms
4
Weapons
11 894
Tattoo Machines
6
Cash
R201 765
Alcohol
268 litres
Cell Phone Accessories
6 235
Mirrors
78
Memory Cards
105
Broken Objects
64
Responding to the figures above, Kgobisa-Ngcaba said the quantity of contraband confiscated in the correctional centres suggested that far more officials were involved.
“Shockingly, official uniforms were also confiscated from inmates, raising the question of what prisoners were doing with these items”.
“As things stand, our prisons are a hub for illegal activity as opposed to rehabilitation. We have already seen shocking reports of violent crimes being orchestrated from correctional facilities, and now we can see how it happens” she said.
“The Department is failing to contain the situation and to implement effective consequence management. In the 2023/24 financial year only 267 criminal charges were brought against officials and inmates for contraband. The quantity of contraband confiscated in the correctional centres suggests that far more officials are involved”.
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