‘All my office furniture was made by prisoners’: Groenewald pushes for hard labour, deportations

About this episode

Pieter Groenewald discusses his plans for inmate labor to promote rehabilitation and save taxpayer money.

Correctional services minister Pieter Groenewald wants inmates to grow food, make clothing, bake bread and work in factories to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of rand and promote rehabilitation. “All [prison] uniforms are produced by inmates. All the furniture in my offices — Cape Town and Pretoria — has been manufactured by inmates, so it's much cheaper,” Groenewald said. Though the furniture predates his appointment in 2024, Groenewald believes it reflects the sort of cost-cutting, skills-development approach he wants to entrench and expand throughout the prisons system. Produced by: Bulelani Nonyukela. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

People in this episode

Guest: Pieter Groenewald

Topics covered

• prison labor
• rehabilitation
• cost-cutting
• deportations

Keywords

• inmates
• furniture
• uniforms
• skills development

Mentioned in this episode

Products: prison uniforms, office furniture

Places: Cape Town, Pretoria

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