MTBPS 2025: Government To Take Over Private Prisons, Including Mangaung Correctional Facility

• The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, announced during his Mid-Term Budget Policy Speech in Parliament that changes will be made to correctional facilities
• Godongwana delivered his mid-term budget speech in Parliament and announced that the government will take over two prisons that are privately-run
• These include Mangaung Correctional Facility, where convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester escaped with the help of his former lover, Nandipha Magudumana

Tebogo Mokwena, Briefly News’ Deputy Head of Current Affairs, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has covered policy changes, cabinet reshuffles, the State of the Nation Address, parliamentary proceedings, and politician-related news, as well as elections, at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News for over seven years.

PARLIAMENT, WESTERN CAPE — The Department of Correctional Services will assume control of the Mangaung Correctional Service and Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Services. This was according to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, who delivered his mid-term budget speech in Parliament on 12 November 2025.

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According to News24, Godongwana said that the government will take over the Mangaugn prison in June 2026 and the Kutama Sinthumule prison in February 2027. Mangaung is located in the Free State. It came under scrutiny when convicted Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester escaped in 2022 with the help of his former partner, Dr Nandipha Magudumana.

Godongwana also said that the government will allocate funding from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to the Office of the Chief Justice. He also announced that the government launched a new dashboard where members of the public can have access to information about tenders, payments made to suppliers, procurement transactions and ownership details.

State to spend more on economic development

The government is also expected to spend more on economic development. A total of 5% of the budget will be spent on economic development over the next five years. The Treasury will focus on infrastructure. Plans will also be made to restore rail corridors.

These include the iron-ore corridor between the Port of Saldanha and the Northern Cape, and the north corridor, which links the Port of Durban to Gauteng. The government will also continue to cut spending. Almost 9,000 cases of ghost workers have been identified in the government's drive to remove them from the system.

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Gidongwana also confirmed the new inflation target of 3% which the South African Reserve Bank has already approved. This came after the Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago announced in July that the interest rate was reduced to 7% and the prime lending rate was reduced to 10.5%.

The government debt is also expected to be stabilised. This year's budget deficit will be R8.2 million smaller than anticipated. The government incurred a debt of $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank in June this year to boost infrastructure development.

John Steenhuisen warns GNU

In a related article, Briefly News reported that the Minister of Agriculture and the president of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, warned that the Government of National Unity (GNU) could be dead by 2029 if jobs are not created.

Steenhuisen spoke on the anniversary of the Government of National Unity. He said that the GNU must shift the needle on economic growth and jobs or risk punishment from South Africa at the polls in the upcoming national elections in 2029.

Source: Briefly News