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27 September 2004

Programme Director
Deputy Minister Cheryl Gillwald
Honourable Councillors
Commissioner Linda Mti
Regional Commissioner Mlombile
Community Leaders and Invited Dignitaries
Representatives of NGOs, CBOs, faith-based organisations and community structures
Representatives of Provincial and Local Government
Area Commissioners and Heads of Correctional Centres
DCS Members
Families and Members of the public, Inmates
Ladies and Gentlemen

The overriding purpose of this gathering this morning is to create a platform for members of the public to engage government on its programme of action as outlined by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year.

The President made specific commitments in his Address and timeframes were clearly spelt out with regard to delivery on the Peoples’ Contract. This Imbizo is directed at securing vital public involvement not only in the implementation of that Programme of Action but also in monitoring it and holding government to account for its programmes aimed at promoting growth and development and fighting poverty levels.

The Department of Correctional Services is integral to this programme. We should be as much accountable to the public as the Departments of Social Development, Education, Health and all other departments. The core business of DCS is to contribute to maintaining and protecting a just, peaceful and safe society through enforcing sentences of the courts; detaining offenders in safe custody whilst ensuring their human dignity and promoting social responsibility and human development.

You might wonder how this relates to government’s Programme of Action that speaks to the need of reducing levels of poverty, of creating jobs, of providing services and of expanding growth and development. You might very well argue that our essential business is to keep those elements who hinder the implementation of these programmes, away from society by locking them up for the longest possible time. There are members of the public who still believe that those who commit crime must be removed from society and made to pay a high price behind high walls, far-removed from communities and society. There are still members of the public who maintain that the only way to deal with offending behaviour is to imprison those guilty of committing crimes for as long as possible and to deny them access to basic rights such as care, development and even human dignity.

Lock them up, throw the key away and let them rot under the worst possible conditions, is a view that still enjoys support in sectors of our society. Sadly, there are still some individuals within Correctional Services who also ascribe to such inhumane practices; who believe that this is the only and proper way to deal with offenders and who do not care about humaneness and human dignity.

On the other hand, you find offenders who still believe that society owes them something; who believe that life in general owes them something; who justify their offending intent and actions by claiming to be disadvantaged and having suffered discrimination and oppression; who deny that they have harmed society and others who are just plain destructive with harmful and evil intent, doing as much damage to individuals, their families and society as possible.

Still others are offenders due to the circumstances in which they find themselves. It could be economic factors that contribute to offending behaviour; it could be loss of family support or the lack of support structures. It could be petty and minor offences that lead to incarceration.

Somewhere between all these extremes, DCS is located. It becomes the department’s constitutional, legal and moral responsibility to cater for the diverse interests of all these groups that I have referred to.

We have to keep offenders in a secure and safe environment and provide for their needs relating to care, development, correcting their behaviour, rehabilitation and reintegration. We have to take responsibility for awaiting trial detainees who in some cases have to spend months waiting for their cases to be heard and finalised. We have to deal with juveniles and youths who should be in schools, colleges and universities, and instead find themselves in prisons. We have to care for women and mothers who should rather be in their homes caring for their children. Then we have those offenders who are habitual, who are guilty of heinous crimes and who have no desire to ever change their behaviour or who face no prospect of ever changing their wayward lives.

Within these correctional centres, we must also contend with negative influences and actions such as abuse, smuggling, crime, corruption, drug abuse, gangsterism and the like. In addition, we face heavy overcrowding of facilities, the lack of adequate resources, insufficient professional services, inadequate rehabilitation programmes and challenges relating to working conditions and remuneration levels of our members. And then, as a department, we also have to face litigation in the courts, quite often related to the conditions within correctional centres.

Within our communities, we, as a department, must contribute towards breaking down the stigmatisation of imprisonment and incarceration. We must reach out to communities not to reject offenders and to, instead, assist in their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The contrasting forces within communities are great. There are those community organisations, religious groups, NGO’s and CBOs who are committed to bringing about changes in the lives of offenders. And many of them are here with us this morning. But then, there are others, who call for and demand harsher sentences of offenders and for their human rights to be denied as a result of their offending behaviour.

These are some of the challenges that DCS have to contend with on a daily basis. I want to submit that DCS will never have the desired outcomes of its core business by working on its own. We will never be in a position to deliver on our programme of action without the essential involvement of communities and other stakeholders. We will never succeed in our aim of correcting offending behaviour without external support and involvement. We will never succeed in our aim of contributing towards reducing the levels of crime unless we succeed in convincing both offenders and society that there is good in all of us and that it needs a societal commitment to bring about the desired better South Africa and better world.

In developing our White Paper on Corrections in South Africa, all these factors have been considered. The White Paper presents us with the best chance of success in contributing towards building a better South Africa. The White Paper is aimed at turning prisons into correctional centres; it is aimed at turning prisoners into offenders who desire and seek correction and rehabilitation; it is aimed at equipping offenders with knowledge and practical experience that will result in a career of achievement instead of a career of criminality; it is aimed at promoting community corrections, restorative justice and the prevention of repeat offending or recidivism; it is aimed at providing an environment where behaviour can be corrected in secure, safe and humane circumstances instead of an environment where circumstances contribute to deteriorating behaviour.

To give effect to the White Paper, the department has identified 36 correctional centres throughout the country, where we want to give effect to the White Paper and implement it as a pilot project before extending it to the rest of the correctional centres. Within the Gauteng region, Leeuwkop Youth, Baviaanspoort Emthomjeni, Pretoria Central and the Johannesburg Youth and Female Sections have been identified as Centres of Excellence. In identifying these Centres of Excellence, factors considered included the present management of centres, appropriate structures and facilities and levels of overcrowding. But crucial to this has also been the capacity to implement and sustain community participation, accessibility in dealing with the restoration of offender-victim relationships as well as access to professional staff and training and workshop facilities.

It must be realised that these Centres of Excellence is the starting point in giving effect to the White Paper. It is not an end in itself and should serve as a challenge to other correctional centres to be added to the list. One of its main objectives is the correction and rehabilitation of offenders in a safe, secure and humane institution. It is also envisaged that these centres of excellence will play a pivotal role in the creation of a corruption-free environment.

In this regard, I want to touch on the escapes from Westville last week and from King Williams Town over the weekend. I must be convinced that corruption was not involved here. How is it possible that inmate’s escape, going through a number of security check-points, without being stopped? How is it possible that the alarm cannot be sounded in broad daylight with inmates moving around freely. How do they get hold of firearms and master keys? It is such obvious examples of collusion that give DCS a bad name. It is such neglect of duty that tarnishes correctional officials with labels of being corrupt, inefficient and downright lazy. How do you justify earning a salary when you are too lazy to check the boot of a vehicle entering or leaving a centre? How do I justify having to fight for improved salaries and work conditions for my officials when they show such total disregard for their duties and treat the public with contempt by putting the public at risk through wanton escapes? Officials found to be in cahoots with offenders will be criminally charged. I will get great satisfaction out of seeing them being incarcerated for their deeds. Such actions of collusion and corruption make them worse individuals than those who they are employed to care for. If found guilty, they will end up in need of rehabilitation and I want to assure them that those employed to care for them would make certain that they would have no chance of escape. The time has come to go beyond just investigating escapes and to hold those responsible, whether through neglect or collusion, criminally liable. Dismissals and suspensions are no longer good enough. Tougher measures are needed, including the criminalisation of failure to fulfil normal duties of security, care and safety.

To get back to the Centres of Excellence, the management and staff of these centres must realise that they will face tremendous public scrutiny in delivering on their mandate. The best White Paper in the world is rendered ineffective and useless if it fails to make good its objectives and aims. They will have to put in place management and operational plans that deal effectively with overcrowding, the state of facilities, and levels of awaiting trial detainees, gangsterism, corruption, negligence and dereliction of duties. They will have to forge correction and restoration programmes, secure partnerships with communities, implement community service and poverty alleviation projects and assist in the restoration and correcting of dysfunctional individuals, families and communities. Centres of Excellence are not going to be elevated to the levels of elitism and exclusivism. On the contrary, it will present a benchmark to measure whether DCS is delivering on its mandate and whether the investment of resources in it by the state and the public are justified and desirable Furthermore, the success of Centres of Excellence will present a strong case for increased investment in the correction of offending behaviour with the concomitant spin-off in the reduction of crime in our communities.

With regard to the setting up of new Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards, we will be taking corrections closer to the communities that we serve. There is a great need for the public to know what happens in correctional centres. The public must know how these correctional centres operate. They must know what we hope to achieve with rehabilitation. They must understand what correctional supervision and alternative sentencing is. They must understand the benefits that accompany reintegration after correction and rehabilitation and they must be convinced of the correctness of embracing offenders who truly show remorse and a change in behaviour.

But communities can never do this if the work of Correctional Services remains clouded in secrecy and controversy. Communities can never do this if they witness escapes; hear of prison fights, gangs in control in centres, abuse and sexual abuse, inhumane conditions and offenders released committing worse crimes. Unless we succeed in bringing communities on board the Correctional Services train, we will never win the fight against crime.

It is, therefore, important that we must ensure that the new concept of Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards works and that we attract community leaders of the highest calibre and integrity to serve on these bodies. A total of 52 Supervision and Parole Boards will be set up from next month onwards. Each one of these Boards will be served by members of communities with the Chairpersons coming from the ranks of communities. This is such a crucial position that we must make absolutely sure that we find the correct persons to lead these Boards. The Chairperson of Parole Boards will have to possess skills that include leadership, management, administration, organising but above all, have the respect and confidence of communities. It is an exciting phase in our development of corrections as a community responsibility and creates the space and opportunity for communities to have a say in the release of offenders on parole and under correctional supervision.

Applications from community members have been called for. This includes the position of Chairpersons as well as two additional community representatives on each Parole Board. It is important, however, that people applying meet with the requirements for these demanding positions. I want to call on community organisations to assist in identifying community representatives that will bring value to Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards.

For the first time, victims of crime will also have an opportunity to give inputs on placing offenders on parole. Representations can be made in writing to Boards and under certain conditions; victims can even be allowed to sit in on parole hearings. This is an important development if we want to succeed in restoring relationships between victims and offenders. My request to you today is to discuss how you can bring value to this new system of supervision and parole.

Let us discuss how we can contribute towards reducing levels of overcrowding, to improving conditions in correctional centres, to the expansion of rehabilitation programmes and to making our communities safe places for everyone. Why should our people fear being in Westbury? Why should Coronationville be seen as a place of crime instead of a place that produces great South Africans? Why should Soweto be regarded as place of hijacks and murders instead of a place that produces wonderful soccer players? Just why should our communities continue to suffer under the burden of crime and violence when there can be so much positive things going for us. Part of the reason is because so many of us with good intentions and plans operate in little silos. Each one of us has our own little area that we concentrate on. Correctional Services fails to involve communities. Groups within communities fail to work with each other. Sports clubs do not see the need to go beyond the sports field, religious bodies work in isolation. And so, we continue, not realising the value of pooling our resources, skills and talents and forging partnerships that will ultimately benefit all our organisations and build stronger and more cohesive communities.

I now want to give you the opportunity to engage government directly on issues impacting on you as communities. While I obviously would prefer the focus to be on Correctional Services, again, this cannot be discussed in isolation of broader community issues. Use this opportunity to come forward with constructive ideas on how we can achieve the better South Africa we all seek. Use this platform presented for you to say to government where we have gone wrong and what must be done to deliver on our mandate of giving effect to the Peoples Contract. I look forward to your views.

I thank you all.

Issued by: Ministry of Correctional Services
27 September 2004