Thousands of South Africans have responded positively to a call by the Minister of Correctional Services for oral submissions on the planned renaming of eleven correctional centres nationally.
Thus far four public hearings have been held in Soweto, Mamelodi, Durban and Pietermaritzburg with about five thousand (5 000) people turning out fired up to make inputs. Thus far about 80 names have been submitted with emphasis placed on essentially two trends, one aiming at celebrating icons and heroes that passed on having dedicated themselves to the liberation and development of others, and another trends focusing on inspiring people to focus on issues of hope, forgiveness, development, rehabilitation and social reintegration. The leadership of the department has expressed satisfaction with this amount of response and about stakeholder contributions to sustaining the dialogue, not only on renaming correctional centres but on broader transformation and development issues aimed at ensuring a better correctional system for South Africa.
To ensure the openness of the process the sessions were constantly reminded that all names proposed are valid and will be considered by the leadership of the Department of Correctional Services, as no pre-conceived names were selected. Still scheduled to take place are public hearings in the following areas:
- 17 March at 14h00 - Raymond Mhlaba Indoor Sports Centre at Dzunga Street in Motherwell – Port Elizabeth for the St Albans Management Area
- 18 March at 14h00 - East London City Hall – Oxford Street for the East London Management Area
- 22 March at 14h00 - Barberton City Hall – Generaal Street for the Barberton Management Area
- 28 March - Ephraim Mogale Stadium – Joe Slovo Street for the Modimolle Management Area
- 29 March - Kroonstaad Civic Theatre – Hill Street for the Kroonstaad Management Area
- 30 March – Mitchel’s Plain - Rocklands Civic Centre for the Pollsmoor Management Area.
Outlining the motives behind the renaming of the eleven correctional centres, Minister Mapisa-Nqakula said since the advent of freedom and democracy, Correctional Services has not effectively been part of the mainstream in defining a new South African identity. Despite raging debates on renaming of towns and historical and geographic places across the country, the name change process in Correctional Services had remained a peripheral, sporadic and uncoordinated matter that never caught the nation’s attention and inclusion in the national discourse on social transformation and social cohesion.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula said the renaming is a means to an end. The end is greater public and community ownership and participation in the delivery of correctional services which should translate into:
- Higher rates of visitation of inmates by their families, loved ones and communities beyond the current 26% rate
- Increased participation of victims in estimated 57 000 parole hearings per year by over 400% in three years time
- Improved reach of eligible offenders by many interventions aimed at correcting the offending behaviour and rehabilitation and
- Improved reception of parolees and ex-offenders by communities to enable the department to address parole backlogs caused by absence of family and community support.
The Minister and National Commissioner Tom Moyane have expressed satisfaction with progress made in public consultations on the renaming of correctional centres thus far. Addressing the Soweto gathering Minister Mapisa-Nqakula welcome all written submissions and appreciated levels of engagement that characterised the public hearings as people have expressed great support for the initiative and the opportunity it gave for qualitative engagement on issues they deem close to their hearts.
Enquiries:
Manelisi Wolela
Tel: 012 305 8204/5
Fax: 086 513 1634
Cell: 083 626 0304
E-mail: manelisi.wolela@dcs.gov.za
