Beds for cash and sex: Disturbing claims rock Tshwane's Kgosi Mampuru prison

Prisoners at Kgosi Mampuru are being made to pay fellow inmates for a place to sleep.

And those who cannot come up with the R240 are allegedly left on the concrete floor of a cramped, stuffy cell that reeks of urine and holds more than 30 men.

The money is then funnelled into the bank account of a man who calls the shots from outside the prison walls.

This is according to two men who spent time in the cells this year, one of whom said he was handed a cellphone and bank details within hours of arriving and told to arrange payment for his bed.

Cells C1 and C2 at the Tshwane facility, they said, were run by an inmate who had appointed himself in charge, and the bunk came with a filthy price, with sex too often demanded in return for a place to sleep.

Approached for comment, the Department of Correctional Services said it was investigating the claims.

A man arrested on May 18 for allegedly stealing R980,000 said he spent time in both cells while waiting for his bail application to be heard.

The man, who asked not to be named because he did not want the ordeal attached to his name or risk jeopardising his bail, was taken to Kgosi Mampuru on May 20.

"So I went to this guy in one of the cells and was given a cellphone and account details.

"My wife then paid and had to send the proof of payment to that number," he said.

He spent that night in C1 and was moved to C2 on the morning of May 21.

He said the men in C2 had sex openly and in numbers, and that pressure was placed on those who had just arrived.

He said the man who called himself the "head honcho" of the cell singled him out after he refused to be penetrated.

Another former inmate said he had been held in C1 in January while facing a hijacking charge.