Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services will tomorrow Wednesday, 5 August kick-start its oversight visits programme by visiting two Western Cape correctional facilities.
The committee will visit Pollsmoor Correctional Centre on Wednesday and Malmesbury Correctional Centre on Thursday.
Committee chairperson Vincent Smith said the purpose of the visits was to familiarise members of the committee with practical matters of correctional facilities in the country which would enable them to perform their oversight role better.
“The committee has identified seven key projects to engage in this term. Some of the pillars of these projects are overcrowding in prisons, the separation of kids from adults and the awaiting-trial detainees.”
Smith said the committee would be meeting with the department later this month. “We know what the theoretical framework under which the department must work is, however, when we meet them we want to ask questions based on practical reality not theory alone,” he said.
Details of the two visits are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Venue: Pollsmoor Correctional Centre
Time: 10h00 to 13h00
Date: Thursday, 6 August 2009
Venue: Malmesbury Correctional Centre
Time: 10h00 to 13h00
For interviews with the chairperson and media enquiries please contact:
Modise Kabeli
Cell: 082 420 0063
Email: mkabeli@parliament.gov.za
Issued by: Parliament of South Africa
4 August 2009
Source: Parliament of South Africa (http://www.parliament.gov.za/)
