Zimbabwe and SA sign prisoner transfer deal As R8.7 million is spent on Shona interpreters

South Africa and Zimbabwe signed an agreement last week on the transfer of prisoners between the two countries to ease overcrowding in South African jails and allow inmates to serve their sentences closer to home.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in Johannesburg on Friday by South Africa’s Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald and Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.

Groenewald said there are currently 12 South Africans held in Zimbabwean prisons, while South Africa holds more than 4,000 Zimbabwean nationals in its correctional facilities.

“In Zimbabwe, they only have 12 South Africans who they will send back to us. This memorandum of understanding with Zimbabwe, as far as I’m concerned, is a breakthrough and will make a huge difference, especially on overcrowding in our facilities,” Groenewald told journalists.

The signing took place during the South Africa-Zimbabwe Bi-National Commission and was witnessed by the presidents of both countries.

South Africa says it costs more than R460 a day to keep one prisoner behind bars.

The deal comes as South Africa’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is under separate scrutiny over how much it spends helping foreign nationals communicate in court.

A recent written parliamentary question asked the department how much it had spent on language interpreters for court appearances in the last financial year.

The latest figures available to the department, for the 2024-25 financial year, show R76.1 million was spent on interpreters and translators.

Shona interpreters accounted for 11.5 per cent of that, or R8.7 million, and were the most frequently used interpreters in five of South Africa’s nine provinces.

As of June, South Africa’s 243 correctional centres held a total of 170,518 inmates, including 27,906 foreign nationals.

More: ZimLive