Bread price review at prisons could save taxpayers R11 million annually

The renegotiated price of bread bought for Correctional Services will save South African taxpayers R11 million per annum.

Committee Chairperson Kgomotso Ramolobeng said in July 2025 that there was a steep increase in the price of bread from R13.36 in the 2024/2025 Financial Year (FY) to R22.95 per loaf in the 2025/2026 FY.

This was more than what a normal South African pays in a retail store. She said the push on the matter caused the review of the prices. On Tuesday, the Minister of Correctional Services Dr Pieter Groenewald, stated that the five-year nutritional contract commenced on April 1, 2025.

“The Department acknowledged market feedback on concerns of pricing relating to the contract. A renegotiation process was initiated in July 2025 by a negotiation committee, which conducted comprehensive market research and analysis to assess current bread prices, and all new proposals were analysed against the market data, historical prices, and volume commitments to ensure competitiveness,” he said.

Groenewald found that the committee took the highest range of bread prices. The DCS bought brown, white, and whole wheat bread as well as brown and white halaal loaves of bread. The department is now saving an average of R6 per loaf of bread. He said that going forward, the emphasis will be on DCS bakeries and the production of bread at approximately R7.

Groenewald said that new prices were determined to be fair to both the department in terms of value for money and the supplier's business sustainability.

“There is a tendency of who can be favoured locally or regionally. The centralised process is welcomed, and it will limit the possibility of corruption. We will add another seven bakeries by 2028 so that we are self-sufficient when it comes to bread,” he said.

Carl Niehaus, an EFF-MP and committee member, said there was a lesson to be learnt from what happened and called for an investigation into the matter and consequence management.

“Well done to the department for following the insourcing model. Some of the issues the department faced were because of outsourcing,” he said.

Janho Engelbrecht, DA-MP, was concerned about how the contracts were awarded in the first instance and also queried if there were any measures in place to recover money lost from the contracts awarded.

The committee previously heard that in the 2024/2025 financial year, 5.27 million loaves of bread were required or ordered from departmental bakeries and just over five million were baked – a shortfall of 270,870.

According to the committee, these loaves of bread had to be procured from outside suppliers, costing the DCS almost double what it would have if the bread had been baked in a correctional facility. In the past financial year, it cost the DCS R7.91 to bake a loaf of bread compared to R13.36 it paid to buy it from an outside supplier.