Kgosi Mampuru prison
Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area is a large prison complex in central Pretoria, South Africa. It is run by the Department of Correctional Services and includes six correctional centres, such as C Max (the ultra-maximum security unit), Pretoria Local Prison, a women’s prison, and a front remand centre.
In 2013, the complex was renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by President Jacob Zuma. The new name honors Kgosi Mampuru, a 19th‑century local chief who resisted Boer rule and was hanged in 1883. The area was formerly known during apartheid as Pretoria Central, but it actually consisted of three separate clusters: Pretoria Central Prison, Pretoria Local Prison, and the Maximum or Beverley Hills unit.
During apartheid, Pretoria Central was a national prison and reception centre where prisoners were housed by race and gender. The Pot, the section for condemned prisoners, held executions, and at one time the gallows could execute up to seven people at once.
The Pretoria Local Prison housed local prisoners and included a white male political prisoners section. Notable inmates included Denis Goldberg. In 1979 three white political prisoners, Tim Jenkin, Alex Moumbaris and Stephen Lee, escaped from the Local Prison after security was improved.
In 2006, Annanias Mathe became the first prisoner to escape from C Max, the maximum-security part of the complex. He was recaptured two weeks later.
In July 2017, a riot occurred at the complex after prisoners protested delays in parole processing, poor food, overcrowding, and alleged warden violence. A warden and an inmate were injured.
The C Max unit is located in the centre of the complex on a hill and is designed for dangerous and violent prisoners. Inmates are kept in solitary confinement for roughly 23 hours a day, and guards use specialized equipment to control them. The six-centre complex also includes a women’s prison and the Pretoria Local Prison.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:01 (CET).