JOHANNESBURG - Some prisons have more foreign prisoners than locals as cells burst at the seams.
More than 22,000 foreign nationals occupy South African prisons, with 690 of those serving life sentences.
Parliament's Correctional Services committee found 525 juvenile offenders at the Emthonjeni Youth Correctional Centre in Baviaanspoort and 400 of them were foreign nationals.
Correctional Services must be concerned about this matter.
WATCH: Discussion | Prison overcrowding | Foreign nationals outnumber locals in some prisons
It's costing them an arm and a leg to keep inmates behind bars.
The department is reported to spend R500 per day per offender.
This means taxpayers are footing a bill of R11.3-million every day to house the 22,600 foreign prisoners.
This totals R4-billion a year.