The Minister of Correctional Services, Mrs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, was upbeat in delivering her third budget vote speech in the National Assembly today, 12 April 2011, saying fundamentals are being put in place to accelerate the implementation of the White Paper on Corrections.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula listed a number of interventions made to reposition the department for better service delivery that included a diagnostic audit done by the Ministerial Task Team, change of medical parole policy, establishment of policy and structures for managing remand detention, intensified fight against corruption and increased capacity of the department to delivery better IT, Health Care and security services.
Tabling her R16.559 billion budget for the 2011/12 financial year, Minister Mapisa-Nqakula said the Ministerial Task Team has identified gaps in the management of offender population and execution of policies which could help address overcrowding. She said the department has developed a blue print to turn the tide on a number of critical service delivery areas and has appointed an Enterprise Project Management Officer to drive among others the development of sentence plans for offenders, ensuring effective functioning of case management committees, centre level performance reviews and development of a model for professional services delivery.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula highlighted the following achievements of the 2010/11 financial year:
- The approval of the Correctional Matters Amendment Bill by both houses of Parliament to create legal framework for implementing a new Medical Parole Policy that broadens offender access to medical parole placement of hundreds of offenders that end up dying in correctional centre per year. The framework also provides for establishment of an advisory panel of medical practitioners and extension of the benefit to include remand detainees
- Down management of overcrowding levels by 4.7 percent from 40.6 percent in the 2009/10 financial year to 35.85 percent in the 2010/11 financial year as a result of implementation of a multi-pronged anti-overcrowding strategy of the department working in collaboration with its criminal justice partners to keep numbers at 160 000 while improving diversion and provision of additional bed spaces
- Employment of 2 234 officials as part of the department’s contribution to government’s priority of job creation which include 706 administrative posts, 1 014 learnerships currently being trained in two Correctional Services Colleges in Zonderwater and Kroonstad as well as 496 interns engaged to assist in the asset verification project
- Establishment of a Remand Detention Branch and legislative framework for providing a distinct remand detention facilities, uniform for remand detainees, care services and access by remand detainees to placement on medical parole
- Substantial improvement of young offender access to particularly education as fulltime centres providing National Curriculum Statement syllabus increased from the only one – Usethubeni Youth Centre in Durban to five centres inclusive of Voorberg, St Albans, Johannesburg and Barberton. More centres are expected to be accredited by the Department of Education including Cradock, Emthonjeni and Barberton Maximum centre as the Department aims to ensure that all 13 youth centres are full time learning centres.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula also announced the upgrading of a number of functions that include government information technology office to a branch and the following functions into Chief Directorates: health care services, Security and Internal Audit. Minister Mapisa-Nqakula said priorities for the new financial year include the implementation of a R12 million project for establishing internal vetting field unit for all officials, electronic monitoring of probationers and parolees to help further alleviate overcrowding, strengthening of security including body scanning search machines and automated fingerprint identification system that is linked to the population register hosted by the Department of Home Affairs.
Other innovating developments planned include the establishment of a trading entity for managing revenue derived from sales of products from workshops and farms, gang intelligence unit, as well as training and resourcing of Emergency Support Teams. The department’s budget will increase at an average rate of 7.3 percent from the R15.4 billion allocated in the 2010/11 financial year to R18.8 billion for the 2013/14 financial year.
Enquiries:
Sonwabo Mbananga
Cell: 082 045 3963
Manelisi Wolela
Cell: 083 626 0304
