Only 7% of inmates have their ID numbers captured on Correctional Services’ systems, the Auditor-General has told Parliament.
“We are not seeing that all the people within the correctional centre have a unique identification, and that is the 7% that we have there,” said Michelle Magerman, business unit leader at the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA).
“So they all have different types of names. Some of them, if they are coming through, we don’t know if they were repeat offenders. So we actually don’t know the history of the person that is within there, because there is no unique identifier,” she said.
She was speaking at the NCOP Select Committee on Security and Justice on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.
Senior manager Omphemetse Setebe said the courts add to the problem.
“There are also issues around the documentation of the ID numbers, with the J7 warrants of detention from the courts also not including the ID in most of the cases, resulting in the inmates using aliases across the different centres, as the correctional facilities are decentralised,” she said.
Senior audit manager Uviwe Platjie-Ruxwana said DCS cannot even track inmates between its own prisons.
“Correctional Services is not able to determine whether someone was previously in their facilities, or someone was coming from one facility to another. Even within DCS, if someone was detained in another correctional centre and they are moved to another one, there is no way of picking that up. That is also a challenge,” she said.
AGSA told the department to “develop and implement a system that will uniquely identify inmates, so that we know and understand who we have incarcerated and who we are spending the department’s money on daily”, Setebe said.
The system meant to do that is the Integrated Inmate Management System (IIMS). It has been stuck for years.
“The progress on the IIMS was halted because of court proceedings and arbitration processes that the department was going through with the supplier that was implementing it. In terms of what was spent on the IIMS system, I think we have about R380 million that was spent. But Omphemetse, you might have the correct figure with you, because we do have the report on that,” Magerman said.
DA MP Ofentse Jeremiah Mokae put the figure lower, “I know the department has spent millions of rands. Over R256 million is my figure now, if I’m correct. If it’s costing taxpayers over R200 million, it is not something that should be left undetected and unresolved,” Mokae said.
“This contract has been coming for years, and the department just seems not to be able to address and resolve this matter,” he said.
Platjie-Ruxwana said IIMS reaches only a third of the centres that need it.
“When it comes to IIMS, it is 43 correctional centres where it has been rolled out. And there are about 122 that keep remand detainees, meaning that there are about 79 where they are still using the old system,” she said.
Setebe said the arbitration is now over. “The department has issued a tasking letter to SITA to continue with the processes, as the arbitration has now been concluded,” she said.
Magerman said nothing would change soon. “We’ll only be seeing movement within that integrated system in the new financial year that we will be auditing.”
The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services previously raised alarm over R259 million already paid for IIMS without full functionality. Remand detainees make up 36% of the inmate population, AGSA said.
