Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for the introduction of cellphone signal-blocking technology at Pollsmoor prison. The Mayor wrote to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald this week expressing concern that criminal activities are being coordinated by cellphone from within Pollsmoor.
COURTESY: X - @JustSecuClusterAccording to Hill-Lewis, the municipality has received
various reports that crime and extortion activity is being coordinated by phone
from within Pollsmoor.
‘’On a recent roads project inspection in Bishop Lavis, I was informed that the contractor had left the site due to extortion threats made by phonecall from an underworld figure inside Pollsmoor. This shows we must do more than just jail criminals, we have to prevent their ability to coordinate crime from within prisons. I have written to the Minister to offer the City’s full support to pilot sophisticated signal-blocking tech at Pollsmoor. We have to flip the switch on cellphones in prisons, and we welcome the Minister’s public commitments to cracking down on this.’’
Mayor Hill-Lewis has offered the City’s support in various
ways, including:
• Intelligence-sharing to identify patterns of criminal
activity emanating from Pollsmoor
• Technical and logistical support to install signal
blocking technology
• Raising public awareness to support these efforts
Hill-Lewis says the City continues to raise concerns about
flaws in the parole system, which enable repeat offenders to continue
terrorising communities.
Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith,
says the City officers regularly encounter incidents of parolees committing
repeat offences.
‘’It is also common for arrested suspects to return to the
streets due to the broken criminal justice system’s inability to secure
convictions. We continue to call for reforms to the early parole system, and
for criminal investigative powers to be devolved to our municipal officers to
help SAPS gain more convictions by building prosecution-ready case dockets,
especially for gang, gun, drug and extortion-related crime.’’
Done By: Mitchum George
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