CCN Reporting
Cape Town:- Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis of Cape Town has drawn a firm line on cellphone use inside prisons, saying that inmates have no right to unfettered communication beyond prison walls – especially when it is used to coordinate gang activity.
This follows the South African Prisoner Organisation for Human Rights’ opposition to the City’s proposal for signal-blocking and communication interception strategies at Pollsmoor Prison.
“Prisoners simply do not have the right to communicate freely beyond the prison walls. We have real examples of police and prosecutors doing good work to put gangsters behind bars, only for them to continue running criminal empires from inside. That makes a mockery of the justice system,” Hill-Lewis said.
He stressed that prisoners should be limited to monitored calls via prison landlines to family or legal representatives — not to extortion calls and threats from smuggled cellphones.
The City argues that underworld figures inside Pollsmoor are directing extortion rackets, even disrupting municipal infrastructure projects. On a recent inspection in Bishop Lavis, a contractor told Hill-Lewis he had abandoned a site after receiving an extortion threat traced back to Pollsmoor.
To combat this, the Mayor has written to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald, urging a pilot project at Pollsmoor that includes:
Signal blocking to disable illegal cellphones;
Raids to confiscate smuggled devices;
Technology to trace and intercept illicit communication;
Public awareness campaigns to build community support.
But one practical question arises: what happens to prison staff, emergency services, or guards who rely on cellphones in and around prison grounds if signals are blocked? City officials insist solutions exist, such as secure internal communication systems for wardens, without allowing inmates to exploit loopholes.
Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, added that cutting cellphone access must go hand-in-hand with tackling corruption inside prisons.
“Prohibited devices don’t just fall from the sky, they are smuggled in, often by staff. Lifestyle audits of wardens are essential. Without tackling corruption, blocking signals won’t be enough,” Smith said.
The City has offered to share intelligence and provide technical support to Correctional Services.
As the debate intensifies, one fact remains clear: while prisoners may retain the right to contact their families and legal teams, the City argues they cannot be allowed to continue running gangs from inside Pollsmoor, at the expense of community safety on the outside.
