Pretoria Central Prison

During the apartheid years, the huge complex was often known incorrectly as "Pretoria Central". In fact, there were three separate clusters of prisons: Pretoria Central Prison proper, Pretoria (Local) Prison and a third known only as "Maximum" or "Beverley Hills". The latter was the ultra-maximum-security section. There were also housing and recreational facilities for the prison wardens. divided into separate prisons for males and females of different racial classifications. It was on what was then Potgieter Street, later renamed Kgosi Mampuru Street.[4][5]

Pretoria Central Prison was the official site of capital punishment in South Africa during the apartheid era. Condemned prisoners were held in a section of the prison called "The Pot".[6] At one time, the prison gallows could hang up to seven people at a time.[7]

Pretoria Central proper consisted of a number of separate prison buildings, each housing various divisions of prisoners based on racial classification and gender. This was a national prison and reception centre where many prisoners started and ended their sentences.[4]

Pretoria Prison, or Pretoria Local, housed local prisoners (split by race) as well as having a maximum-security section for white political prisoners (black political prisoners being held in Robben Island), recidivists, habitual escapees, and the condemned. The section housing the white male political prisoners was an L-shaped three-storey building built in the late 1960s, consisting of 52 cells. As of 1978, the maximum number housed had been 22, with the average about 10; for this reason, the remaining cells were occupied by prisoners awaiting trial. The inmates included Denis Goldberg (who had been sentenced at the Rivonia Trial with Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders), Raymond Suttner, and Jeremy Cronin.[4]

The old Pretoria Local Prison building was demolished around 1978 after other buildings had been built adjacent to it.[8]

In 1979 white political prisoners Tim Jenkin, Alex Moumbaris and Stephen Lee escaped from "the Local". After this escape, the building in which they had been held was completely refurbished with increased security features.[9]

In November 2006 Annanias Mathe became the first prisoner to escape from the C Max part of the prison complex.[10] He was recaptured two weeks after his escape.[11]

The complex was renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013.[1]

A prison warden and an inmate were injured during a prison riot in July 2017, after prisoners' concerns over delays in processing parole applications, poor food, overcrowding and violence by wardens were sent in a memorandum to the justice minister Michael Masutha, who had been Minister of Justice and Correctional Services since 2014.[12]

C Max is the maximum security division of the prison. It is run by the South African Department of Correctional Services.[2] The division is specifically designed for violent and disruptive prisoners who have been classified as dangerous in terms of the South African Criminal Procedure Act. Prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours of each day out and specialized equipment, such as electric shields, are used by the prison guards.

In November 2006, Annanias Mathe became the first person to escape from C Max. Mathe, who had extensive military training gained during the Mozambique civil war, is reported to have escaped by covering his body in Vaseline and squeezing through his tiny cell window 20 by 60 centimetres (8 by 24 in). Mathe had been detained on more than 50 charges, including murder, rape, armed robbery and hijacking.[10] He was recaptured two weeks after his escape following a large manhunt.[11]

• Annanias Mathe - Serial rapist and robber.
• Clive Derby-Lewis - Assassin.
• Dimitri Tsafendas - Assassin.
• Eugene de Kock - Commanding officer of C10, a counter-insurgency unit of the South African Police which functioned as a death squad for the apartheid government.
• Janusz Waluś - Assassin.[17]
• Moses Sithole - Serial killer and rapist.
• Radovan Krejčíř - Czech former billionaire; organized crime boss.[18]
• Sipho Thwala - Serial killer and rapist.
• Thabo Bester - Serial rapist, murderer and prison escapee.