Pretoria - For Moepone Nkwane, a mother of a beautiful five-month-old baby boy, life behind bars is very challenging.
Nkwane - an inmate at the Johannesburg Prison, commonly known as Sun City - found out a month into her incarceration that she was pregnant.
Sitting in the prison hall with many other incarcerated moms, Nkwane could not hold back her tears, saying that raising a child in prison felt like serving a double sentence. Currently there are 51 babies at the prison, including new borns and toddlers.
Nkwane, 28, was sentenced to six years in prison earlier this year for an unspecified crime.
Like many other women who found themselves in prison, Nkwane said she was driven by anger to commit a crime. However, today through the programmes available at the prison, she is able to control her anger and is working her way towards becoming a better person.
The country's First Lady, Thobeka Madiba Zuma visited the prison today. She made a passionate plea to communities to welcome and accept back into society offenders who had served their sentences.
She said offenders must be given a second chance. "The system must be redesigned to enable inmates to reintegrate back into communities. We know that one day, they will come out and lead a normal life," she said.
She expressed concern over the high number of women who were in the country's prisons.
The Johannesburg Correctional Services houses more than 800 women who are serving time for murder, shoplifting, drug trafficking, theft and assault.
According to prison officials, most women who are in prison were abused by their partners until they reached a point where they felt they couldn't take it anymore and retaliated, and in the process, committed murder.
