South Africa pays foreign contractors billions of rand to run and maintain private prisons. Recent events suggest it may be the next arms deal, writes investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins.
On 7 August this year, one of the worst prison fires ever in the history of prisons in South Africa took place at Kutama-Sinthumule prison in Makhado, run by the American GEO Group.
Frustrated prisoners who had drafted an explosive memorandum listing their complaints started the fire when the main author of the memorandum was placed in an isolation cell. The prison burnt down for the fourth time since it opened in 2002. All 3 024 prisoners had to be transferred to other prisons in the country.