Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis calls for Prison signal jammers after contractor threatened from Pollsmoor

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says he was shocked to discover that an extortion racket was being run from inside Pollsmoor Prison.

Hill-Lewis has since called for the introduction of cellphone signal-blocking technology at the prison, in a letter addressed to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald.

The mayor said he recently visited a road construction site in Bishop Lavis, where he was told the contractor had been threatened.

“The contractor had abandoned the site because he had received a threatening phone call from inside Pollsmoor Prison. A well-known Cape Town underworld figure told him: ‘You better get off that site. This site belongs to me and my guys,” Hill-Lewis said.

Hill-Lewis added that police informed him it was common for inmates to have cellphones smuggled into prisons.

“This is an outrageous situation. We can’t have that. So instead of trying to uncover who’s running these smuggling rings, just block the cellphone signals, for goodness’ sake,” he said.

According to Hill-Lewis, Minister Groenewald has since responded to his letter, confirming that a tender process is underway to acquire signal-blocking technology for prisons.