[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

Master of ceremonies
Acting premier, Mrs Edna Malewa
Mayor of Potchefstroom, Mr Satish Roopa
Mayor of Klerksdorp, Mr Masike
Representative of the MEC for safety and security, Mr Nale
Commissioner Linda Mti
Provincial commissioner of the South African Police Service, Commissioner Beetha
Provincial commissioner, Mrs Lunga Tseana
Distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen

It is an immense pleasure for me to be here tonight to celebrate the outstanding achievements of some members of our correctional services team in this province in the various fields and to give them a word of encouragement as we continue to make a meaningful contribution to the improvement of our country's correctional system.

I believe that the sense of joy and pride is not only confined to the winners themselves, but it also extends to their supervisors as well as to their families and friends.

I am further gratified to be part of this occasion because other departments and our stakeholders will judge us by the way we treat our achievers whose performance is a reflection of the operations of this department.

This prestigious function must be encouraged to take place as often as necessary because other members of our department in this and other provinces will draw strength and be encouraged to also become great achievers in the years ahead. This is a precedent which will be well worth emulating in the future.

I am encouraged by the categories in which these awards have been given and for those who may not be aware I would like to mention a few:
* escape-free year
* financial management and control over state funds
* logistic management and control
* neatest prison reserve
* best sports person
* best inside guarding member
* best outside guarding member, and others.

Members of staff of the Department of Correctional Services carry out their duties under very difficult and stressful circumstances and this occasion is an opportunity to enable most of them to temporarily forget about their work environment and join in the celebration of these commendable achievements.

It will enable both the winners as well as those who aspire for these awards to work even harder in a spirit of constructive competition to contribute positively to our efforts at service delivery.

Not long ago we were celebrating service delivery week and we rededicated ourselves to provide even better service to the nation which we have committed ourselves to serve. We vowed to jealously guard and protect the enormous responsibility that has been bestowed on us and give back to the nation the reward of excellent service as an indication of our appreciation of this trust.

Master of ceremonies
Ladies and gentlemen

Since the demilitarisation of the Department of Correctional Services in 1996, transformation has been accelerated and this has increased awareness internally and externally. The focus of the Department has shifted from incarceration only to the rehabilitation of offenders and restorative justice. To strike a balance between safe custody and rehabilitation a more holistic and integrated approach is required as a long-term strategy to crime prevention in the country.

This also means that the Department must align itself with national and international standards and trends and participate actively in the activities of the crime prevention, justice and security cluster. This is a prerequisite to address the imbalances of the past and to ensure that all interventions will ensure a better future for offenders upon their release from prison.

The purpose of rehabilitation is to provide a safe and appropriate environment that is conducive to influencing offenders to learn and adopt positive and appropriate value systems, thus creating a desire in them to lead productive lives as law-abiding citizens when they are released to the community.

For rehabilitation to succeed, prisoners must be treated as individuals with each prisoner having his/her own programme. The development of individualised needs-based rehabilitation programmes entails provision of specialised treatment and development programmes to prisoners in partnership with the community and the offender.

This is done by enhancing the personal and social functioning of each offender in line with his or her individual needs, with a view to preparing them for re-integration as productive, well adapted and law-abiding citizens.

The active engagement of the community in the rehabilitation process of the prisoner as a collective responsibility strengthens our partnership in the treatment of the prisoner. To promote and enhance community involvement appropriate programmes will be developed to ensure a structured working relationship, which will regulate involvement between role players.

The exercise of promoting restorative justice is meant to create a platform for dialogue between the offender, the victim and the community to facilitate the healing process. We realised that what is needed in response to criminal behaviour is more healing than more hurting by bringing together the offender, the victim, families and the community.

Furthermore, the Department realised that the lack of community involvement in the parole system has been a matter of grave concern to many of us. This has therefore necessitated the amendment of the Correctional Services Act to provide for representations to be made to the Parole Board, either by the victim in person or by a representative of the victim. The Correctional Services Amendment Bill has been passed by parliament and will come into operation soon.

The composition of the new parole boards will include two permanent members from the community, members from the Departments of Correctional Services, Justice and the South African Police Service. A member of the community will chair them.

On the question of overcrowding in prisons, the Department is involved in a number of inter-departmental projects developed within the crime prevention, justice and safety cluster. These include the following:

* The awaiting-trial prisoner project, which is meant to reduce the detention cycle time of awaiting-trial prisoners in an integrated manner. This system has been piloted at seven sites. The official launch of the national rollout took place on 17 August this year where a further twenty-six site were identified and it is envisaged that it will be implemented before July 2002.

* The Department is further involved in the Saturday Courts project, which was introduced in ninety-nine courts countrywide. During February 2001, the number of awaiting trial prisoners in custody at these prisons served by those specific courts declined by 12% or 4 355 from 36 300 to 31 945.

* We intend to dramatically increase the accommodation capacity of the prison system by as much as an additional 30 000 beds during the forthcoming medium term expenditure framework period. This will be achieved by building low cost "new generation" prison facilities for medium and low risk prisoner categories, who are in the majority of the country's prison population. These facilities will be strategically situated around the country in the areas most affected by overcrowding. This building programme will be supported by the development of construction norms and standards based on "new generation" design principles to achieve low life-cycle facility cost. These construction norms and standards will be translated into facility design prototypes based on economical and practical design solutions, which take into account our unique situation as a developing country.

* The Department wishes to further increase its existing accommodation capacity. A further ± 8 000 beds will be added to the system with the commissioning of several new prisons.

* At this stage thirty-three prisons have been identified for repair and maintenance work and these prisons have been divided into 3 priority groups, each in various stages of progress.

I am aware that in the North West Province, at the end of October this year there were 11 566 offenders accommodated in 14 prisons which have an approved accommodation capacity of 6 678. I believe that the North West Province will also benefit from our efforts to reduce overcrowding. I am also informed that renovations at the Mafikeng prison are nearing completion and will be able to accommodate an additional 200 prisoners when it is operational early next year.

With regard to the question of escapes in prison, the Dpartment managed to decrease the number of escapes by 46%. The number of prisoners who escaped from custody in 2000 is 250 compared to 459 who escaped from custody in 1999.

This downward trend has continued during the first seven months of 2001 with a 16% decrease in the number of escapes compared to the number of escapes during the first seven months of 2000. The comparative figures are 138 for the first seven months of 2000 against 116 escapes for the first seven months of 2001.

The Department has been trying to market the concept of correctional supervision as an alternative method of sentencing rather than imprisonment. Magistrates nationally are empowered to place awaiting trial prisoners under this community-based sentence in terms of Section 62(f) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977, which can go a long way towards reducing overcrowding in our prisons. I want to implore magistrates in this country to make use of this provision of our law as frequently as they can.

The current community corrections population nationally stands at 62 746, which reflects growth from the previous year, which was 57 362.

Problems have been experienced with the implementation of this system. However, these have been overcome and the tender for the full implementation of electronic monitoring will be published during the course of this financial year.

Our strategy is also to decentralise Community Corrections Offices in order to make them more accessible to offenders because some offenders are not financially able to afford travelling expenses to these offices. It has also been established that some who were classified, as absconders were in fact poor offenders who could not afford transport fares to Community Corrections Offices.

Master of ceremonies
Ladies and gentlemen

Allow me to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation to all those who contributed to make this occasion the success it has been. In particular I would like to thank Assupol, Metropolitan, Enterprise Services, Nashua and Sanlam for their financial support.

In conclusion, Master of Ceremonies, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to be associated with the men and women of character within my Department, who have risen above the challenges and problems we are facing. Today's awards should motivate all our members and offer them an opportunity to excel even more in their endeavours.

As outlined in our rehabilitation strategy and in other pronouncements, it is important for managers to note that individuals are motivated by different issues and respond to different stimuli to enable them to give the best of themselves. This therefore presents all of you with the challenge to empower your personnel and to create an environment conducive to the enhancement of performance.

The success of personnel cannot be measured without acknowledging their acquisition of the necessary level of competence required in the execution of their responsibilities.

Congratulations to all of you, and may God bless you.

I thank you

Issued by Ministry of Correctional Services

7 November 2001