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The Minister of Correctional Services, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has confirmed in a parliamentary reply that the cost of the new correctional centre in Van Rhynsdorp has escalated by over 40% and that the completion date has been delayed by over a year. The explanation for the additional R83 million that this centre will now cost, are not acceptable and I will be asking the Minister to conduct an investigation.

The estimated cost of this new centre has rocketed from R193 million to R275 million, which amounts to R83 million. The October 2009 completion date has now been delayed until December of this year - more than a year later than anticipated.

The minister stated in response to my question that the reasons for the cost escalation were inflation, the "remote location of the site" and rising transport costs. These are hardly credible excuses. The contractor surely factored the location of the centre into its tender price, as well as inflation rate. Rising transport costs cannot alone be responsible for the R83 million price increase. The question then is, what are the real reasons for the price escalation? I will be asking the minister to conduct an investigation into this matter. I will also request the portfolio committee to be briefed on this matter.

On a recent visit to the prison, I was also told that the specifications had been changed by the department. Although the minister does not allude to this in her reply, I suspect that this is the real reason for the delay and the escalation in price. If so, this is both avoidable and unacceptable.

The current average overcrowding rate in South Africa's prisons is 143%. 188 prisons countrywide are overcrowded, and more than 20 of these have an occupancy rate of more than 2 offenders per bed. Overcrowding is a serious state of affairs as it leads to the growth of gangsterism and contributes towards the high level of recidivism.

The 530 new beds that the new centre will accommodate will provide much needed relief. For these reasons, the construction of new correctional centres must be monitored and their timeous construction ensured. I will write to Minister Mapisa-Nqakula asking her to:

conduct an investigation into the delay and cost increases of this project, and;
take all possible steps to ensure that this and other correctional centres are completed without any further delays