Kgosi Mampuru – the home of high-profile and dangerous inmates like Thabo Bester, Vusi Matlala, and Rosemary Ndlovu, among many others – is one of only two super-maximum security prisons in South Africa.
With its 24-hour surveillance and solitary confinement, the correctional centre’s C-Max division is cited as being “impossible for a security breach”.
Previously known as Pretoria Central Prison, it was renamed by former President Jacob Zuma in 2013.
KGOSI MAMPURU: INMATES WHO CALL PRISON HOME
Housed in Kgosi Mampura is the C-Max division, a maximum security section of the correctional centre.
Calling it home are several past and present high-profile inmates like…
- Apartheid-era assassin Eugene Terblanche
- Killer nurse Daisy de Melker
- Chris Hani killer Janusz Walus
- Serial rapist Ananias Mathe
- Serial murderer Rosemary Ndlovu
- “Dros Rapist” Nicholas Ninow
- Reeva Steenkamp’s murderer, Oscar Pistorius
- Murderer, rapist and fraudster Thabo Bester
Also being held at Kgosi Mampuru is controversial tenderpreneur Vusi Matlala, accused of fraud, attempted murder, among many other charges.
The hotshot businessman was recently moved to maximum security after he was found with a cellphone in his medium security prison cell over the weekend.
TECHNOLOGY MEETS SECURITY
In 2019, former Minister of Correctional Services Ronald Lamola reopened the doors to Kgosi Mampuru’s C-Max division after a multi-million rand upgrade.
The division can hold between 300 and 500 inmates.
It is known for the following…
- 24-hour surveillance
- High-tech control both in and outside the prison.
- Round-the-clock contact with “selected high trade correctional officers.”
- Inmates who spend 23 out of 24 hours inside their cells under solitary confinement and are shackled whenever they leave.
Images via X
Lamola said at the time: “This place is a maximum facility where we house hardened criminals or inmates who are placed in the facility for behavioural modification, and to ensure that they conduct themselves in a disciplined manner in line with the Correctional Services Act”.
Former Correctional Services National Commissioner, Arthur Fraser, added about Kgosi Mampuru’s C-Max: “This facility is designed in a way that makes it close to impossible for a security breach, especially with regard to escapes”.
DOES SOUTH AFRICA NEED MORE C-MAX PRISONS LIKE KGOSI MAMPURU?
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