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Dozens of cell phones were confiscated during the operation.
Phones, drugs and various other illegal items were confiscated when officials conducted a raid at the Pollsmoor Correctional Facility on Saturday night.
The prison has around 8000 offenders currently housed in a facility with an official bed capacity for just under 4000.
VIDEO: Raid underway at Pollsmoor Correctional Facility, in Cape Town. A number of cells and various areas of the prison are being searched. Phones, drugs and various other illegal items found.
Credit: Corbin August pic.twitter.com/R3ZiU3Ulpp
— SABC News (@SABCNews) April 4, 2026
National Commissioner for Correctional Services Makgothi Thobakgale says they were searching for contraband and detecting illegal activities.
“Dozens of cell phones have been confiscated during the operation and an assortment of drugs, ready to be sold, have also been found. We also went to the prison kitchen and found cellphones and it is not allowed, its contraband and this is a sign that they’ve lost control of the facility.”
Thobakgale adds that what is concerning is that visits from family and friends are now being used to bring illegal items into prison.
“There is just no order. We discovered a hole large enough for a person to climb through and escape, discovered in one of the cells. Another channel for smuggling contraband is via corrupt prison wardens. Around 130 officials complicit in illegal activities across the country have been disciplined and dismissed over the last year. However, it represents only a small portion of correctional staff.”
But he says that not all correctional services staff are corrupt, a majority of them are still ethical.
“However, the few that are out of order are the ones that lead us to such situations where contraband and drugs are flooding the prison. We are also faced with a major crisis of of overcrowding, we are supposed to deal with close to 3800 inmates but now we have to handle double that which stretches’ us thin.”
