Since my appointment as Minister of Correctional Services in May 2009, I have visited a number of correctional centres around the country.
South Africa currently has 237 correctional facilities in which approximately 165 000 offenders are detained on a daily basis. As you are aware, the overcrowding of these facilities is of grave concern to government and constitutes an ongoing challenge to my department and the criminal justice system as a whole.
During my visits to centres, I have been alarmed to find offenders, both sentenced as well as awaiting trial detainees, who could have been released in terms of existing legislative provisions, but who were instead incarcerated in our already overcrowded facilities.
Various provisions in both the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No 51 of 1977) and our own Act (the Correctional Services Act, 1998 (Act No 111 of 1998) have been passed by Parliament over the last few years to alleviate the burden on correctional services by allowing the controlled release of certain categories of offenders on either day parole, parole or correctional supervision for instance.
However, it has become clear during my visits to centres that these provisions only exist in theory and that they are not being utilised in practice.
I have also realised that there are certain categories of vulnerable offenders such as women with babies, those who are mentally ill and the elderly within our facilities, about whom very little information is recorded within the systems of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).
Should there for instance be a need for legislative intervention we do not have statistical data to support or to motivate amendments with regard to these categories of vulnerable offenders.
In light of the above, I have identified the need for an independent task team to conduct an audit of certain categories of inmates within DCS facilities.
The aim of the audit is essentially two-folded:
* On the one hand statistics will be collected whilst on the other hand certain trends, short comings and best practices would be identified as a result of the information collected during the statistical audit
* The over arching goal of the audit is however the need to ultimately address the current state of overcrowding within our facilities.
The audit by the minister’s task team has been underway since 1 February 2010 and its work is expected to take approximately six months to complete.
The audit is taking place in accordance with clearly defined parameters as set out in the terms of reference, which are available to staff from the communications Department in Correctional Services upon request. The terms of reference will also be made available to members of the media upon request.
The minister’s task team comprises of three members as well as a secretariat made up of three persons and is led by Dr Mongezi Guma.
I trust the task team will enjoy the support of officials in our department and achieve the desired outcomes as we endeavour to place the Department of Correctional Services on the path of rendering a professional service to society.
Officials of the department as well as offenders are encouraged to interact with the newly appointed ministerial task team as it goes about its work.
For this purpose I enclose the contact details of the ministerial task team below. All internal enquiries to the task team are to be directed to the task team’s secretariat. All media enquiries will be handled by the office of the spokesperson.
Contact details of the ministerial task team are as follows:
Dr Mongezi Guma
E-mail: mongezi.guma@dcs.gov.za
Fax to e-mail: 086 587 8361
Tendai Dumbutshena
E-mail: tendai.dumbutshena@dcs.gov.za
Fax to e-mail: 086 587 8362
Britta Rotmann
E-mail: britta.rotmann@dcs.gov.za
Fax to e-mail: 086 587 8364
Secretariat: Ministerial task team
Nontobeko Tonga (Laetitia)
E-mail: nontobeko.tonga@dcs.gov.za
Fax to e-mail: 086 569 1482
Tel: 012 307 2059 X2059
Cell: 082 770 8960
Sulice Hayward
Fax to e-mail: 086 533 0914
E-mail: sulice.hayward@dcs.gov.za
Tel: 012 307 2628 X2628
Cell: 084 587 1512
Madelyn Faure
Fax to e-mail: 086 533 0611
E-mail: Madelyn.faure@dcs.gov.za
Tel: 012 307 2594 X2594
Cell: 079 505 7146
Enquiries:
Sonwabo Mbananga
Tel: 012 305 8850
Cell: 082 045 3963
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
19 February 2010
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za/)
