South African prison authorities are ready to clear out cells for FIFA World Cup offenders, a department official said in the South African parliament on Wednesday.
South African correctional services department chief deputy commissioner Teboho Motseki said that the department was ready to move inmates out of cells to create excess capacity "in the event of an overflow".
Deputy Commissioner of security Willem Damons said that no leave was being granted to prison staff. There would be minimum movement of prisoners from courts to cells.
"We will utilize the stringent measures like we normally do around the festive season, where you allow the minimum movement of offenders," he said.
Motseki said that in the event of an overflow around host cities, inmates would be moved out to create excess capacity.
However, he said the department did not expect to hold more than 200 offenders.
Motseki said most "2010 type crimes" would be dealt with "over a 24 hour period" and that offenders would be held in cells around the stadiums or at police stations.
He expected that if any of these things happened they would be around the host cities.
"People held in those sorts of crimes will be held around stadiums or in police holding cells. A space of 200 offenders in every host city is way too much than what we expect."
Motseki said problems in South African prisons could arise before and after the tournament, "in the event of there being opportunistic crimes".
"At the moment there isn't a sense of threat, but we are not oblivious to a possibility," he said.