Special remissions - like the one that saw former president Jacob Zuma released from jail - are set to be repeated as the Department of Correctional Services grapples with overcrowding.

Without referring to Zuma, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola defended the remission in August to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services, saying it reduced overcrowding by 15%.

Democratic Alliance (DA) MPs Janho Engelbrecht and Glynnis Breytenbach were not impressed.

Inmates benefitting from remission were not the only ones leaving jails under discussion: While admitting rapist and murderer Thabo Bester's escape "undermined" the department's efforts, Lamola said correctional facilities were not "synonymous" with escapes.

Only 27 inmates escaped in the 2022/23 financial year.

Zuma was jailed in July 2021 for 15 months for contempt of the Constitutional Court after he refused to obey an order to appear before the Zondo Commission.

However, hardly two months later, he was released on medical parole after the then-national commissioner of correctional services, Arthur Fraser, overruled a Medical Parole Advisory Board recommendation the former president did not qualify for it.

Court proceedings initiated by the DA, AfriForum and Helen Suzman Foundation culminated in July this year with the Constitutional Court upholding a Supreme Court of Appeal decision Fraser unlawfully released Zuma and he "must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre" to complete his sentence.

And so, on the morning of 11 August, inmate Zuma presented himself to the Estcourt Correctional Centre.

However, hardly two hours later, he was a free man yet again.

It emerged the day before, Ramaphosa signed a special remission order that allowed supposed non-violent offenders to be released.

At the time, Lamola insisted the remission order had nothing to do with Zuma's pending incarceration, but it was to alleviate overcrowding in prisons.

It emerged the Estcourt Correctional Facility had three open beds at the time Zuma reported back there.

On Tuesday, delivering a political overview of his departments and their entities' annual reports to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services, Lamola said overcrowding in South Africa's jails remained a problem.

He said in the previous financial year, 2022/23, South Africa had an inmate population of 157 056, consisting of 98 495 sentenced males, 2 691 sentenced females, 53 912 unsentenced males and 1 958 unsentenced females.

"This inmate population of 157 056 was accommodated within the approved bed space capacity of 107 582 only. Overcrowding is a difficult challenge," added Lamola.

"We continue to implement the overcrowding reduction strategy to mitigate against rising levels of overcrowding which affect our operations in a multitude of ways.

"As Honourable Members would recall, we announced a special remission of sentence that was approved by President [Cyril] Ramaphosa in August this year to a category of low-risk inmates."

He said before this remission, the prison occupancy rate was 143%.

"But this has been reduced by 15%, demonstrating that the remission is indeed one of the tools to reduce overcrowding."

We also emphasise that we cannot build new correctional facilities at a pace which will eliminate the challenge of overcrowding, therefore we will continue to implement the overcrowding reduction strategy to ensure safety and humane incarceration of all inmates in line with the Nelson Mandela Rules," Lamola added.

Engelbrecht questioned whether there was adequate planning for the special remission.

He said there was an increase of people at homeless centres in South Africa's metros, creating the impression there was no reintegration programme.

Engelbrecht also questioned why they made space for remand detainees - who were to be presumed innocent - by setting free sentenced criminals. 

Breytenbach said Lamola painted picture of "moonshine and roses" every year when he presented this overview.

"I wonder whether we live in the same country!" she said. "Ordinary South Africans know that it is just not true.

"Now, he lets out over 10 000 convicted criminals on parole, and dumped them all over the country in the streets, they've got nowhere to go, they've got not prospect of finding a job. They've got nowhere to live. They've got nothing to eat. And their families have rejected them.

"So, the spike in the crime rate is hardly a surprise. Again, thanks to the minister and his department.

"And yet, he comes here and tells us that everything is wonderful and its okay. It's not okay. Nothing is okay!

"And if he thinks that the platitudes he uses to describe the conditions in the country, he is making a big mistake. He needs to take responsibility and man up and start dealing with the issues."

Lamola said the special remissions project started in April, after the Auditor-General identified a shortage of beds.

The process included consulting with families and the inmates' reintegration and where the inmates would go after their release.

He added they would have to follow up about whether they "dumped them in homeless places".

Lamola said remissions were not the only measure they used to deal with overcrowding.

Responding to Breytenbach, he denied he came to the committee to "paint a picture of roses".

"If that was the case, we would not be raising the challenges.

"It does seem that honourable Breytenbach does not observe any progress at all, which is there in terms of performance indicators, in terms of the information, even by the AG."

Lamola said a "huge number" of parolees complied with their parole conditions.

As part of his overview, he added: "One of our notorious inmates, convicted rapist and murderer Bester's escape from the Mangaung Private Correctional Facility, undermined our efforts to safely incarcerate dangerous criminals."

Bester escaped from the private prison in May 2022.

"However, honourable members, as various enquiries and oversight visits of this portfolio committee revealed, inmates are incarcerated safely across our 243 correctional centres in the country," Lamola insisted.

"Our centres are not synonymous with escapes."

Lamola said during the financial year, correctional services reduced security incidents through effective implementation of prevention strategies.

During the 2022/23 financial year, there were 27 escapes, a reduction of 90 from the previous year's 117.

"We continue to acknowledge that one escape from any of our centres is one too many. We will continue to strengthen our security operation to prevent escapes and other security incidents such as contraband smuggling."

The minister said they were clear they "do not intend in any way whatsoever, to renew contracts with private correctional centres, namely Mangaung and Kutama Sinthumule".

"The matter of terminating the contract of Mangaung Private Correctional Centre is before court where we are defending our decision to terminate this contract and we stand by our decision to serve the consortium with a termination notice."