Correctional officials cannot fail
Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has reminded Correctional Officials that they cannot fail in their duties as they are society’s last bastion of hope.
Delivering the keynote address at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) sixth annual National Corrections Excellence Awards in Kimberley over the weekend, 7 March 2014 where South Africa’s top Correctional Officials for 2012/13 were announced, the Minister said: “Correctional Officials are society’s last bastion of hope, and, therefore, cannot fail in the execution of their duties. Correctional Officials must step in where the church, mosque, temple, school, psychologists, psychiatrists, trade unionists and everyone else in society has failed. To this end, we re-iterate that anarchy, and corruption, will not be tolerated in our correctional centres. Correctional Officials, who are partners in crime with inmates, have no place in this department. This kind of behaviour makes a mockery of rehabilitation.
The Excellence Awards recognise those Correctional Officials who go beyond the call of duty in contributing towards safety, fighting fraud and corruption, promoting partnerships, advancing community participation and advancing education in rehabilitation. Over 6,000 Correctional Officials, from the country’s 243 correctional centres, submitted entries for the awards. The entries were adjudicated from correctional centre level to area, provincial and national level by an independent adjudication committee. Sixty eight (68) finalists were selected in the various individual and team categories.
South Africa’s top Correctional Officials and teams for 2012/13, who came first in the various categories, include:
- Good Governance Award: Mr Theunus Frederick Bloem from Durban Medium C Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal.
- Batho Pele Award: Mr Leon Lamprecht from George Correctional Centre in the Western Cape.
- Masibambisane Award: Mr Surgeon Tom from King William’s Town Correctional Centre in the Eastern Cape.
- Education and Training Award: Mr. Dannyboy Pieterse from Pollsmoor Female Centre of Excellence in the Western Cape.
- Public Safety Award: Mr. Hendrik Albertus Van der Spuy from Community Corrections at Pietermaritzburg Management Area in KwaZulu-Natal.
- Best Community Corrections Office: Krugersdorp Community Corrections Office in the Limpopo/Mpumalanga/North West Region.
- Best Correctional Centre/Remand Detention Facility/Combined Centre: Drakenstein Correctional Centre in the Western Cape.
- Deputy Minister’s Team Award: Klerksdorp Correctional Supervision and Parole Board in the Limpopo/Mpumalanga/North West Region.
- Minister’ Education and Training Award: Malmesbury Medium A Correctional Centre in the Western Cape.
- Minister’s Reading for Redemption Award: Groenpunt Youth and Medium Correctional Centre in the Free/State Northern Cape Region.
- Minister’s Community Participation Award: The President’s Awards Team from Robertson Correctional Centre in the Western Cape.
- Dennis Williams, Community Liaison Officer at Pietermaritzburg Community Corrections Office in KwaZulu-Natal who scooped second prize in the category Best Overall Public Servant of the Year at the Department of Public Service and Administration inaugural National Batho Pele Excellence Awards in November 2013, was also acknowledged.
Minister Ndebele called upon Correctional Officials to purse life-long learning. “We are turning our correctional centres into learning centres, and we want offenders to read, study and work. Since April last year, the number of completely illiterate inmates enrolled for literacy courses increased from 1,300 to 2,600. Further, the number of full-time correctional schools increased from one in 2009 to 12 in 2014. In the case of Correctional Officials, education, life-long learning and reading will ensure that you cultivate a positive attitude towards rehabilitation.
“In 2011/12 the Public Service Commission rated DCS third in the country, amongst 86 national, provincial and local state institutions, in terms of fighting fraud and corruption. DCS has achieved a 94% conviction rate, and has taken appropriate action against guilty officials. Since 1994, the number of escapees from custody was reduced from 1,244 to 54 in 2012/13.
“Our human rights ethos, regarding the treatment of inmates, is motivated by the counsel of the world’s most famous prisoner, our late global icon, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. He remarks, in Long Walk to Freedom: ‘It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones’.
“It is also Nelson Mandela who speaks about the importance of the Correctional Official in the life of an inmate: ‘The most important person in any prisoner’s life is not the minister of justice, not the commissioner of prisons, not even the head of prison, but the warder in one’s section. If you are cold and want an extra blanket, you might petition the minister of justice, but you will get no response. If you go to the commissioner of prisons, he will say, ‘sorry, it is against regulations.’ The head of prison will say, ‘If I give you an extra blanket, I must give one to everyone.’ But if you approach the warder in your corridor, and you are on good terms with him, he will simply go to the stockroom and fetch a blanket’.
“Correctional Officials are agents of change. It is these officials who have a pivotal role to play in social cohesion and nation building. In order to achieve this incredible feat of healing and building South Africa, we must all truly desire to see it happen as our forbearers did. We are descendants of champions, and the DNA of winners runs in our bloodline. We cannot afford moderation, because it leads to mediocrity. We need intensity, which leads to excellence. To hate excellence, argues Mary Renault, is to hate the gods. Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Helen Joseph, Abdullar Abduraman, Lillian Ngoyi, Fatima Meer, Miriam Makeba - these are our ancestors who had the DNA of excellent service to humanity and our country. In order not to fail them, in the task of reconstructing our country, we need to do ordinary things extraordinarily well,” the Minister said.
For interviews and inquiries on the adjudication of the Excellence Awards, please contact the Chairperson of the National Adjudication Committee, Mr Willie Scholtz, on 083 325 9949.
