Cape Town – To curb criminal activities from being coordinated by cellphones from within Pollsmoor Prison, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for the introduction of signal-blocking technology.
On Friday, 19 September 2025, Mayor Hill-Lewis revealed that he has written to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald expressing concern that criminal activities were being coordinated by cellphone from within Pollsmoor Prison.
“The City has received various reports that crime and extortion activity is being coordinated by phone from within Pollsmoor,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
“On a recent roads project inspection in Bishop Lavis, I was informed that the contractor had left the site due to extortion threats made by phone call from an underworld figure inside Pollsmoor.
“This shows we must do more than just jail criminals; we have to prevent their ability to coordinate crime from within prisons.
“I have written to the Minister to offer the City’s full support to pilot sophisticated signal-blocking tech at Pollsmoor.
“We have to flip the switch on cellphones in prisons, and we welcome the Minister’s public commitments to cracking down on this.”
Mayor Hill-Lewis said, besides technology to jam signals and intercept communications from underworld figures inside prisons, the Minister has also publicly committed to intensifying raids on illegal contraband, including illicit cellphones in correctional facilities.
Mayor Hill-Lewis has offered the City’s support in various ways, including:
- Intelligence-sharing to identify patterns of criminal activity emanating from Pollsmoor
- Technical and logistical support to install signal-blocking technology
- Raising public awareness to support these efforts
The mayor said the City also continues to raise concerns about flaws in the parole system, which enable repeat offenders to continue terrorising communities.
“City officers regularly encounter incidents of parolees committing repeat offenses,” said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.
“It is also common for arrested suspects to return to the streets due to the broken criminal justice system’s inability to secure convictions.”
Alderman JP Smith added: “We continue to call for reforms to the early parole system, and for criminal investigative powers to be devolved to our municipal officers to help SAPS [South African Police Service] gain more convictions by building prosecution-ready case dockets, especially for gang, gun, drug, and extortion-related crime.”
