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Constitutional Court of South Africa.
The Constitutional Court has ruled that the blanket ban on personal laptops in prison cells is unlawful and violates the constitutional right to further education.
The judgment follows an inmate Mbalenhle Ntuli’s challenge. He took the head of the Johannesburg Prison and the Correctional Services Minister to court for denying him access to a laptop for studying.
Ntuli’s counsel argued that the Correctional Services department’s policy prevented him from studying.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Steven Mahiedt, said, “Any inmate in a correctional centre, registered with a recognized tertiary or further education institution and who reasonably needs a computer to support their studies and any student, who registered for a course of studies who reasonably requires a computer as a compulsory part of the course, is entitled to use their personal computer without the use of a modem in their cell.”
(1/4) Judgment on Wednesday, 30 April 2025 at 10h00: The outright prohibition of personal computers in prison cells constitutes an unjustifiable limitation on the constitutional right to further education under section 29(1)(b).
— Constitutional Court (@ConCourtSA) April 30, 2025
(4/4) CCT 322/23 Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and Others v Ntuli pic.twitter.com/zLXEd4noko
— Constitutional Court (@ConCourtSA) April 30, 2025
