South Africa and Zimbabwe sign framework to allow transfer of prisoners

South Africa and Zimbabwe have agreed a framework to cooperate on correctional services, including the interstate transfer of offenders. Ministers from both countries met ahead of a bi-national commission and will sign a memorandum of understanding, the Department of Correctional Services said.

Meeting and memorandum of understanding

Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald met with Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi, on Wednesday. The engagement took place ahead of the South Africa–Zimbabwe Bi‑National Commission and the signing of an MoU planned for Friday, the department said.

Areas of cooperation outlined

The MoU identifies several strategic areas of cooperation, including technical cooperation on information management, exchange of information relating to prisons and correctional services, and promotion of prison self-sufficiency through agricultural and industrial production initiatives, the Department of Correctional Services said.

“The agreement will also establish a framework for cooperation on the interstate transfer of offenders between South Africa and Zimbabwe. This is a matter of mutual importance given the number of citizens from both countries serving sentences across their respective borders,”

the department said.

Expected benefits cited

The department said the agreement is expected to deepen cooperation in justice and correctional services and contribute to regional integration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

South Africa has signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Botswana, and the chairperson of the portfolio committee on correctional services, Kgomotso Ramolobeng, said in June that

“Such bilateral agreements have the potential to ease pressure on correctional facilities, reduce incarceration costs and strengthen rehabilitation by allowing offenders to remain closer to their families and their support networks.”

Prison population and cost context

As of June, South Africa’s total inmate population across its 243 correctional centres was 170,518. That figure includes 62,927 remand detainees, 422 state patients, and 107,169 sentenced inmates. National bed capacity is listed as 107,054.

The number of foreign nationals among those still awaiting trial was 14,640, while sentenced foreign nationals numbered 13,266, bringing the total of foreign nationals in South African prisons to 27,906.

In a parliamentary meeting, Ernest Hendricks of the Patriotic Alliance warned that the prison system is in crisis and said

“Our prisons are being used to compensate for failures in our courts, bail system and immigration system.”

He noted that foreign nationals make up about 15% of the correctional centre population and said this was costing taxpayers an estimated R11 million per day. The Department of Correctional Services also stated that it costs the state over R460 per day to incarcerate a single prisoner.

What comes next

The department said the MoU will be signed on Friday as part of the South Africa–Zimbabwe Bi‑National Commission. The agreement will establish the cooperative framework described above, including the interstate transfer of offenders, the department said.