Convicts must get PCs - court

VICTORY: PRISONER'S LONG FIGHT TO FINISH HIS EDUCATION WITH RIGHT TOOLS FINALLY OVER

- Chulumanco Mahamba

The Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark judgment ruling that prisoners have the right to use personal computers in their cells to further their education.

The Apex court dismissed the appeal brought by the minister of justice and correctional services, the national commissioner for correctional services and the head of the Johannesburg correctional centre: Medium C, thereby upholding the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in favour of Mbalenhle Sidney Ntuli.

In 2018, Ntuli - who was an inmate at Medium C - challenged the department of correctional services' blanket ban that prohibited inmates from possessing and using computers in their cells.

The department's Policy Procedures on Formal Education Programmes, which govern the use of computers by prisoners who have enrolled for studies and need to use a computer, are the source of the blanket restriction. The policy was approved by the acting commissioner for correctional services in 2007.