36/1/4/1/201100266
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 582
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 11 NOVEMBER 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 36- 2011)
Date reply submitted: 13 December 2011
582. Mr R A Lees (DA-KZN) to ask the Minister of Police:
(1) Whether all locks on the holding cell doors at the Osizweni Police
Station in KwaZulu-Natal are in working order; if not, (a) why not and
(b) what action has been taken to ensure that they are repaired; if
so, what are the relevant details;
(2) (a) what is the maximum number of prisoners that the holding cells
are designed to accommodate and (b) how many prisoners were in the
holding cells at 06h00 on each day since 31 October 2010 up to the
latest specified date for which information is available;
(3) whether any prisoners that were supposed to be held at the station
were transferred to other stations during the said period; if so, (a)
what are the reasons for this, (b) to which stations and (c) what is
the distance between these stations;
(4) whether this has resulted in any prisoners arriving late at court; if
so, (a) what are the relevant details in each case and (b) how will
this problem be addressed in the future;
(5) whether the transportation of such prisoners resulted in less
vehicles being available for patrols; if not, what is the position in
this regard; if so, (a) why and (b) how will this be addressed?
CW737E
REPLY:
1) All the locks at the cells are old but in working order. Twenty (20)
new locks were ordered and will be installed by the end of November
2011.
2) The station has five (5) cells and can accommodate eighty-five (85)
prisoners. Since 31 October 2011 the station was holding on average
between one hundred and sixteen (116) and one hundred and thirty-six
(136) prisoners in the cells on a daily basis.
3) The prisoners had to be transferred to nearby stations to curb the
overcrowding in the cells. The prisoners were taken to Newcastle SAPS
and Newcastle prison (30 kilometres), Utrecht SAPS (28 kilometres) and
Hattingspruit SAPS (42 kilometres).
4) In one incident a prisoner arrived late at court from Newcastle prison
due to a shortage of administrative personnel at the prison. The
matter was addressed and no further problems were experienced.
5) The transportation of prisoners has resulted in fewer vehicles being
available for policing. The truck allocated for the transportation of
prisoners is used between Osizweni and the court at Madadeni. The
patrol vehicles have to be used to convey prisoners detained at other
police stations. Newcastle prison used to detain all the awaiting
trial prisoners but due to renovations at the prison they were unable
to continue receiving awaiting trial prisoners. They are currently
not taking more than ten (10) awaiting trial prisoners per month.
Reply to question 582 approved by the Minister