Pretoria Central Prison


Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane in South Africa. It is operated by the South African Department of Correctional Services.
The complex comprises six correctional centres, including the notorious C Max, Pretoria Local Prison, and a women's prison. The new name is the same as the street name, with both now bearing the name of Kgosi Mampuru, a 19th-century local chief who resisted colonial rule and was subsequently hanged in 1883.

History

1948-1991: Apartheid era

During the apartheid years, the huge complex was often known incorrectly as "Pretoria Central". In fact there were three separate clusters of prisons: Pretoria Central Prison proper, Pretoria Prison and a third known only as "Maximum" or "Beverley Hills". The latter was the ultra-maximum security section. There were also housing and recreational facilities for the prison wardens. divided into separate prisons for males and females of different racial classifications. It was on what was then Potgieter Street, later renamed Kgosi Mampuru Street.
Pretoria Central Prison was the official site of capital punishment in South Africa during the apartheid era. Condemned prisoners were held in a section of the prison called "The Pot".
At one time, the prison gallows could hang up to seven people at a time.
Pretoria Central proper consisted of a number of separate prison buildings, each housing various divisions of prisoners based on racial classification and gender. This was a national prison and reception centre where many prisoners started and ended their sentences.
Pretoria Prison, or Pretoria Local, housed local prisoners as well as having a maximum security section for white political prisoners, recidivists, habitual escapees, and the condemned. The section housing the white male political prisoners was an L-shaped three-storey building built in the late 1960s, consisting of 52 cells. As of 1978, the maximum number housed had been 22, with the average about 10; for this reason the remaining cells were occupied by prisoners awaiting trial. The inmates included Denis Goldberg, Raymond Suttner, and Jeremy Cronin.
The old Pretoria Local Prison building was demolished around 1978 after other buildings had been built adjacent to it.

1979 escape

In 1979 white political prisoners Tim Jenkin, Alex Moumbaris and Stephen Lee escaped from "the Local". After this escape, the building in which they had been held was completely refurbished with increased security features.

Post-apartheid

2006: C Max escape

In November 2006 Annanias Mathe became the first prisoner to escape from the C Max part of the prison complex. He was recaptured two weeks after his escape.

2013: renaming

The complex was renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013.

2017: riot

A prison warden and an inmate were injured during a prison riot in July 2017, after prisoners' concerns over delays in processing parole applications, poor food, overcrowding and violence by wardens were sent in a memorandum to the justice minister Michael Masutha, who had been Minister of Justice and Correctional Services since 2014.

Composition

The complex comprises six correctional centres, and includes a women's prison and Pretoria Local Prison.
The remand centre is in the front of the facility. The supermax prison, now known as C Max and on the site of the former death row, is in the centre of the facility, on the lee of a hill.

C Max

C Max is the maximum security division of the prison. It is run by the South African Department of Correctional Services. The division is specifically designed for violent and disruptive prisoners who have been classified as dangerous in terms of the South African Criminal Procedure Act. Prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours of each day out and specialized equipment, such as electric shields, are used by the prison guards. It consists of two rows of fifty cells each.

Prison escape

In November 2006, Annanias Mathe became the first person to escape from C Max. Mathe, who had extensive military training gained during the Mozambique civil war, is reported to have escaped by covering his body in Vaseline and squeezing through his tiny cell window. Mathe had been detained on more than 50 charges, including murder, rape, armed robbery and hijacking. He was recaptured two weeks after his escape following a large manhunt.

Notable inmates