KwaZulu-Natal police chief lieutenant-general Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has warned that SA’s correctional facilities may be perpetuating the country’s gang problem, describing prisons as “breeding grounds” for gangs.
Addressing MPs in parliament on Wednesday afternoon, Mkhwanazi said people could enter correctional facilities with limited criminal knowledge and leave having been recruited into gangs and exposed to new criminal strategies.
“Our correctional facilities are the breeding grounds of crime and gangs,” he said.
“They walk in there innocent, not knowing much. They come out, they’ve been coached into being numbers and they can speak the language.”
Mkhwanazi said the alleged problem extended beyond inmates, pointing to the recent arrest of a correctional official who he said was allegedly trying to take contraband into a correctional facility.
He questioned whether correctional facilities were fulfilling their intended purpose.
“Until we interrogate those things, let’s forget about dealing with gangs because the breeding ground is in prison,” he said.
Mkhwanazi argued that the current cycle could end up strengthening rather than disrupting criminal networks.
“We chase [criminals on] the street, we arrest them, we send them in prison, they become hard gangs and they come out with new strategies and the circle continues again,” he said.
His comments formed part of a parliamentary summit on gang-related violent crime.
Mkhwanazi said scrutiny should not be limited to the police, arguing that law enforcement, lawyers, prosecutors, magistrates, judges and correctional services all formed part of the chain that needed to be examined.
He questioned whether people employed across these institutions could themselves have links to gangs or criminal networks.
He also raised concerns about lawyers allegedly being funded by criminal figures to represent suspects, saying the Legal Practice Council may need to examine how legal representatives were paid in certain cases.
His comments come against the backdrop of the judicial commission of inquiry established following his 2025 allegations about criminal syndicates allegedly infiltrating SA’s criminal justice and law-enforcement structures. The commission’s terms of reference include examining possible criminal-syndicate infiltration or influence involving SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority, the judiciary and the department of correctional services.
Mkhwanazi told MPs the response to gang crime also needed to look beyond arrests and prosecutions.
He linked crime to broader issues including town planning, infrastructure, unemployment and government outsourcing, arguing that communities needed roads, schools, parks and other infrastructure, while greater employment opportunities could help reduce the conditions in which crime flourished.
He said solving the gang problem would require a collective response rather than relying on law enforcement alone.
“If we’re going to think that law enforcement is a solution, I’ve said it before, most of us are going to take off our jacket to become citizens, the problem will remain there,” Mkhwanazi said.
He called for political differences to be put aside in tackling the problem and for the various parts of the criminal justice system to be examined as a whole.
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