[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

17 March 2009

Programme director
National commissioner
Representatives of mayors and executive mayors from neighbouring towns
Chairperson of the Parole Board
Councillors
Members of the judiciary
Our acting regional commissioner
Leaders of the religious sector
DCS Executive managers and officials
Director Governor (from the South African Police Service)
Representatives from our sister government departments
Representatives from Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (POPCRU), non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and faith-based organisations (FBOs)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

The opening of this wellness centre is testimony to the ongoing and hard work by our government aimed at intensifying the fight against the HIV and AIDS scourge. At the Department of Correctional Services, we pride ourselves in the fact that both officials and offenders are involved in the onslaught against this disease.
We are also gathered here to open the offices of the local Parole Board. Under the Correctional Services Act of 1998, the board, after having considered a report on any offender serving a determinate sentence exceeding 12 months, may place him or her under correctional supervision. The most progressive aspect about this piece of legislation is that, under the principle of restorative justice, it includes the victims in the process of placing the offender on parole.

These two events should be a symbol of our government’s ongoing agenda of providing improved service delivery to our people a true commitment and embodiment of the principle of Batho Pele.

We have seen how South Africans can change society when we stand together. We are a free nation today because of our united voice and struggle against oppression.

But, while we continue to make concerted strides in consolidating equality, democracy and justice for all before the law, our country continues to grapple with the challenges of unemployment, poverty, crime, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and HIV and AIDS, to mention but only a few.

It is precisely because of these challenges that our government established the South African National AIDS Council, creating a platform for different stakeholders to take up the fight against HIV and AIDS. This is the cooperation between government and civil society that saw us working together to produce and launch the National Strategic Plan (NSP) in 2007.

The primary objectives of the NSP are to:
* reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2011
* reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS on individuals, families, communities and society by expanding access to appropriate treatment, care and support to 80 percent of all HIV positive people and their families by 2011
* reduce by 50 percent the rate of new infections by 2011.

In this context, the opening of this wellness centre bears witness to the above challenges and will hopefully work towards finding solutions to some if not all of them. It is a tireless and selfless effort by men and women of commitment and dedication to our ongoing search for a lasting solution to the scourge that continues to wreak havoc in our communities, leaving hundreds of helpless orphans and child-headed households.

To intensify the work that we do as a department, I led delegations to the 16th International AIDS Conference in Canada, Toronto in 2006 as well as to the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in 2008. During these conferences I observed the attention that HIV and AIDS issues received in the global arena, and it made me to understand that correctional services is but a microcosm of society itself, and inevitably shares the same challenges in managing the scourge of this dreadful disease. We still face the challenges of providing effective health education, maintaining confidentiality and health standards in already overpopulated correctional facilities and protecting the young, especially awaiting-trial detainees from being sodomised and sexually abused.

Ladies and gentlemen, I can proudly say that the lessons learnt and best practices shared at these conferences and seminars are currently being synergised and incorporated into the department’s HIV and AIDS programmes and response framework.

This means that deliberations emanating from this event will go a long way in shaping and influencing legislation and policy aimed at advancing the onslaught against HIV and AIDS.

As the Department of Correctional Services, we remain committed to the framework aimed at implementing programmes and services for both officials and offenders. I am proud to announce that almost all our provinces, including the North West, are now vigorously implementing the mandate of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), of which the Department of Correctional Services is a very active role player.

To further highlight the department’s commitment to the fight against HIV and AIDS, the North West province has also been identified by the department to be accredited as a comprehensive HIV and AIDS prevention, care, support and treatment site.

It must, however, be mentioned that this achievement did not happen in isolation, but it was a collective effort between the Departments of Health in the provinces of the Free State and Northern Cape and correctional services.

Through the launch and opening of this wellness centre, the department hopes to share best practices both at home and beyond our borders, identify gaps and lessons learnt and strengthen our efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

In aligning itself with the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2007 to 2011, and to reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS among offenders and officials, the Department of Correctional Services has prioritised the following programmes:

* Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT)
* Treatment, care and support
* Research, monitoring and surveillance
* Human rights and access to justice.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce that both offenders and officials have responded favourably to the concept of voluntary counselling and testing with unprecedented enthusiasm. The number of participants in the above programme rose from 6 838 to 10 356 from January to December last year.

This was mainly due to the Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) campaigns conducted in all our regions, and to awareness drives staged as part of the build-up towards the commemoration of World AIDS Day last year. Allow me to take this opportunity and announce that the number of offenders on Anti-retroviral (ARVs) treatment also increased from 4 180 to 6005 nationally last year.

In the DCS, it is our belief that, by constantly participating and sharing in strategic discourses such as the launch of this wellness centre, in conjunctions with communities themselves, we will overcome the fight against this disease that continues to cause misery around the world. It is for this reason that we salute you all for having taken time off your busy schedules to take a moment to gather, reflect and propose solutions on the way forward.

In concluding, I would like to take this moment to quote President Kgalema Motlanthe when he said during his recent State of the Nation Address “I stand before you with pride and confidence that the South Africa we celebrate today worlds apart from the divisions, conflict and exclusion of a mere 15 years ago is a product of the labours and toils of South African women and men from all walks of life.”

Just like the men and women the President was referring to above, all of you gathered here, the unsung heroes and heroines, the combatants in the ongoing war against the scourge of HIV and AIDS, will go down in history as the sons and daughters who never folded their arms, twiddling thumbs whilst the house was on fire.

I would like to wish all of you here today the best on your continued efforts to render ours an HIV and AIDS free nation. I am hopeful that, by continuing to establish such wellness centres throughout the country, we will put the Department of Correctional Services well on its way to raise the bar in the fight against HIV and AIDS. May our efforts continue to be a constant reminder that we all need to stop HIV and AIDS and keep the promises that we daily make to our spouses, children, colleagues and friends to find a cure.

In the absence of a cure, we promise our unwavering support, love and care to all those who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. To the leadership in this region as well as all the stakeholders who are joining us in the opening of this wellness centre, I salute you for your commitment to still keep the HIV and AIDS agenda alive. Former President Nelson Mandela once noted that, “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good women and men to do nothing.”

I salute all of you who are prepared to stand up and be counted amongst those who are doing something to fight this war on HIV and AIDS and make correctional services a “place of new beginnings.”

Thank You

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
17 March 2009
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za/)