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28 November 2008

Programme director
Distinguished guests and partners
Correctional managers and officials
Ladies and gentlemen

Today is a special day for Correctional Services as it marks a number of critical milestones in our efforts to transform this department and accelerate delivery of services to the people. In short the following milestones are being celebrated today:

* Official opening of new Parole Board offices in Middledrift;
* Official renaming of the Middledrift Management Area;
* Strengthening of existing partnerships with particularly the spiritual community; and the
* Conclusion of a successful Corrections Week.

Together these are indicators of how serious we are in changing this institution to be truly a people's correctional system that all South Africans can be proud of and support. We have made a clarion call to every sector and every individual to join in making sure that delivery of Correctional Services is no longer business as usual.

We are saying to successfully break the cycle of crime; we must work together in asking the question, what is it that we can together do to take safe detention, rehabilitation and social re-integration of offenders to a higher level?

We ask this question not because we have failed, but because there is so much more to do and therefore our pace of delivery must double and be better than today and yesterday. We are talking of innovations, new and better ways of solving historical and current challenges facing delivery of Correctional Services in this country.

Significance of Parole Board offices

Programme director, this morning we started with the official opening of the new Parole Board office in Middledrift, marking the completion of the construction of the 20th Parole Board office nationally at a cost of over R40 million. We have made good progress towards our target of building 53 Parole Board offices with a projected budget of R126 million over the current medium term expenditure framework. This investment means we take very seriously the founding principles of our constitution and the provisions of our legislation and policies that seek to mainstream and empower victims of crime in the administration of justice.

Correctional Services over the past three years conditionally released on average 54 offenders on parole or for placement under correctional supervision as stipulated in the Correctional Services Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. I am serious concerned about the low rate of victim and public participation in the processes of determining the suitability or not of placing offenders on different forms of parole and correctional supervision. I do acknowledge that we have made progress through appointing both chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of the Parole Boards from among communities served by the boards, but a lot more needs to be done including:

* Better communicating the opportunities created for victim involvement in the process in a language and through platforms best suited to the victims.
* Educating or empowering programme that will help affirm the victims self worth and human dignity.
* Improving our institutional capacity to drive the restorative justice programme building on the good examples demonstrated by our partners like National Institute for the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO).

I strongly believe these and other interventions will create greater awareness, promote acceptance of offenders that demonstrated willingness and commitment to change, as well as inspire our communities to take appropriate action including forgiveness and giving of second chances to rehabilitated offenders.

Of those granted parole on a monthly basis about 50 eligible offenders per month cannot be released because of absence of permanent addresses and appropriate family and community support base. These are some of the factors contributing the high re-offending rates in South Africa, and that is why we have adopted the yellow ribbon campaign aimed at promoting giving of "second chances". Given this context I am sure many of you will heed the call, wear a yellow ribbon and be an advocate of this humanising gesture from this point onwards.

Why do we rename Middledrift Management Area?

From today onwards, the Middledrift Management Area that includes King Williams Town, Stutterheim, Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort with all areas falling in between will be called Amatole Management Area. This name change was necessitated by the confusion created by naming the broader area with a name of a particular centre, whose reputation resulted in demoralisation of staff across the management area. The name change is part of a broader intervention to improve service delivery in the area which includes:

* The downgrading of the Middledrift Correctional Centre from a Maximum to a medium centre status.
* The enhancement of productive engagement of offenders through among others the construction of an abattoir we launched during Corrections Week last year.

Strengthening partnerships with particularly the spiritual community

Today's celebration is fitting, when one considers the pledges just made at this gathering by our esteemed leaders of various denominations. There can be no doubt that remoulding crashed personalities, grudging souls, low self esteem and denigrating sense of self can never be successfully done without reverting to the creator of the souls. We need to ask the question, what had happened to the Africans whose prowess in science, technology and intellect constituted the basis of world civilisation thousands of years ago. We remain today with symbols of such greatness in the form of the Timbuktu Manuscripts, Zimbabwe Ruins, Mapunungwe Gold Rhino and Egyptian Pyramids. As a lay preacher, I wish to repeat these words I believe we all know "If you believe and I believe Africa will be saved."

Esteemed leaders of our churches, we do acknowledge that there is a lot of work being done in our facilities particularly over the weekends. Many souls are touched, many offenders have come to terms with their own hurt and the harm they have caused others, and many sought refuge in the comfort of knowing that they are the Children of God. We are grateful for that. But we need to take the spiritual development of offenders and also our officials to a higher level.
We must also ask the question what can we do better together to attain these goals? I believe from this gathering we will constitute appropriate networking and institutional arrangements to help answer the question humbled by our belief that holding hands together and with Gods help, we can achieve a lot more.

Growing rhetoric towards an "eye for an eye" approach

South Africans are witnessing unprecedented levels of violent crime, with a strong belief that criminals have greater rights and privileges than law abiding citizens. These feelings are understandable and are a wake up call for all leaders in families, communities, government, churches, businesses, labour and various other civil society structures. The drive for retributive justice, best represented by the expression "an eye for an eye" is gaining ground and does threaten to reverse the progressive gains made over the years. I must hasten to explain that our approach as Correctional Services is multi-fold. For those in need of retributive justice particularly to deal with heartless criminals that habitually maim and kill our fathers, mothers, daughters, sons and relatives, let me assure you that we have the most secure Kokstad Correctional Centre where they can never escape. We also plan to ensure that each region has such a top security facility in future to cater for a growing number of serious and violent offenders. There is currently a programme of auditing what exists in order to reclassify and re-grade centres appropriately to meet these needs.

We however believe that an overwhelming majority of our offenders are those that slipped in their lives and therefore have a great potential for rehabilitation and therefore deserve second chances. We believe "an eye for an eye" approach could simply breed more reasons for more crime among these categories, and would actually "leave the world blind". This is a category we seek to invest more in and therefore appeal to all leaders across the spectrum to join hands with us to gear our society to give second chances to rehabilitated offenders who have demonstrable commitment to change and to give back to society. We have many offenders who have crossed the Rubicon and are best examples of what the correctional system can deliver. We are saying let us rally behind them in order to make South Africa safer for all.

Programme director we are also concluding a very successful Corrections Week, which we launched on the 14 November, started in earnest on 21 November in Pollsmoor with the launch of wellness centre by Deputy Minister Loretta Jacobus. We have since had absolutely inspiring engagements. I have considered these initiatives and have since concluded that the campaign should be spread over a month, but also we should continue to showcase pockets of excellence through out the year.

Let me state that we owe these great strides to the dedication, passion and lover of many correctional officials that have spared no effort to help take delivery of correctional services to a higher bar. We now take our hats off to all of them. We have committed ourselves to do all in our power to build their department into an employer of choice for themselves and for prospective employees. I strongly believe "together we can".

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
28 November 2008