South Africa's prisons are bursting at the seams, with the situation so severe that, in KwaZulu-Natal, officials are looking to ship 4000 inmates to prisons in other provinces. Gauteng and Western Cape are also battling severe overcrowding, but officials in KwaZulu-Natal believe there is capacity in North West, the Free State, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo to handle the extra numbers.According to a report, the province has 9000 more prisoners than the number of beds available.Almost 4000 of them will have to be moved elsewhere for the department to reach its target of 131% capacity.The situation is mirrored across the country, where overcrowding has led to the outbreak of disease and, in some cases, an increase in violence between inmates.Said KwaZulu-Natal regional commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele: "There are more than 3000 offenders that we have to off-load."Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha told The Times that while the number of inmates in the country's prisons had decreased significantly in the last decade, overcrowding was still a serious problem.There are currently 160000 people in detention nationwide, nearly 40000 more than can be housed."The major metropolitan provinces like Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are worst affected. The more peripheral provinces generally have less pressure."Masutha said the recent evacuation of more than 4000 Pollsmoor prisoners following the outbreak of an infection caused by a rat infestation, showed just how problematic overcrowding could be.Prisoners' rights groups and unions have slammed the living conditions of inmates, calling them "inhumane".Police and prison civil rights union spokesman Richard Mamabolo said: "This is a national challenge. Our members are affected ... they are supposed to be responsible for 20 inmates, but sometimes one warder has to take care of 40."Gwen Dereymaekel, of the Prison reform initiative, said the merging of the Departments of Justice and Correctional Services had not had any significant impact on court backlogs."The reasons to keep inmates in prisons should be strong," she said. Additional reporting by Katharine Child..