Main address of Acting National Commissioner Nontsikelelo Jolingana at the Gauteng Chapter of the Imvuselelo Campaign of Correctional Services held at Mamelodi in Tshwane
Programme Director
Regional Commissioner of Gauteng Mr Zach Modise
Bishops and leaders of various denominations gathered today
Distinguished guests
The Management and staff of Correctional Services
Ladies and gentlemen
I greet you all in the wonderful name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen Our thoughts and prayers goes to the Mahlangu family for the passing away of the mother of Solomon Mahlangu mama Martha Mahlangu who will be buried this Saturday. A woman who knows hardship, perseverance, a woman who's son was hanged by the apartheid regime in 1979, on 6 April. This woman lived with that pain, God carried her throughout ! Mother tell my people I love them. She made sure we get that message! Moment of silence.
Today we are gathered here to say “well done good and faithful servants”. To those overwhelmed by the current non-delivery paradigm paddled by the media, this may seem an anomaly to praise correctional officials for being “good and faithful servants”. I stand here today holding my head high with pride in what has been achieved by the overwhelming correctional officials over the last 20 years of freedom. There is no contradiction in these statements, but an affirmation of the outstanding contribution made by our officials, who our Minister Sbusiso Ndebele said “they matter”.
I represent the whole Senior Management of Correctional Services in saying, unequivocally and without fear of contradiction, well done good and faithful servants, for today correctional services is a far cry from the prison service inherited from the apartheid regime in 1994. We have a cause for celebrating 20 years of freedom in this country, and the Gauteng Imvuselelo Revival Prayer Service could not have come a better time than this. As our nation gears itself to celebrate the coming of age of our democracy, we are seeing many doubting Thomases, refusing to believe that twenty years of freedom brought major positive changes to the criminal justice system in general and correctional services in particular.
We will continue to state and repeat tabulating the achievements made through dedicated and hard work of Correctional Officials over the years. When the Senior Management met last week in Durban we cherished a summary performance report given, which demonstrated miles of progress made in numerous areas. Allow me programme Director to give a brief overview of that report for the benefit of this august gathering: In 20 years of freedom in South Africa we achieved a 99.97% success rate in secure custody of inmates by reducing escapes by 96% from 1244 to 58 escapees since the advent of democracy. This was achieved through progressive and meticulous execution of our integrated security strategy that includes physical, technological and information security with biometric access controls, CCTV security Cameras, fencing and empowering of officials as the most critical variable in our efforts to enhance security. I am proud to also announce that of the 58 - 2013/14 escapees, 41 has been rearrested 30 of whom spent less than 48 hours of their ill obtained freedom. We praise correctional officials and their SAPS partners and communities for this achievement. We also registered great strides in centralising education in our rehabilitation programme.
We have doubled the intake of completely illiterate offenders to our pre-ABET programme, urging closer to eliminating nearly 6 000 offenders in this category of serious disadvantage. We increased fulltime schools twelve fold during the fourth term of government from the only school we had in 2009 – Usethubeni in Durban Westville, while doubling matriculants and continuing to improve the pass rates. We are on course to achieve the ideals enunciated by Minister Sibusiso Ndebele when he declared the compulsory education policy in Correctional Centres.
We have also breathed new life into government’s restorative justice and victim empowerment programme with the introduction of the Victim Offender Dialogue in November 2012 by Minister Sibusiso Ndebele. Thus far we have held 96 sessions nationally touching over 2 000 victims and communities while driving home five key variables of the change we wish to see among perpetrators of crime – viz.: Regret, Remorse, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of offenders back into society. We seek to centralise victim needs and aspirations in executing this programme.
We have increased agricultural production particularly during the fourth term of government to even reach self-sufficiency in a number of product lines such as pork and eggs, reaching our targets at about 18% less costs than the open market. The Minister has been fascinated by the potential of agriculture and has even appointed a Special Task Team to investigate this area and make recommendations on how we can take this from where we are to higher levels of productivity as we gear ourselves for the implementation of the National Development Plan. We received a preliminary report and made further inputs to the work of this Task Team earlier this month.
These achievements would not have been possible without the growing crop of ambassadors of excellence in Correctional Services and many other champions of excellence in correctional services delivery, who are doing well away from the spotlight. We owe great gratitude to them all for these positive results we see. We also know that when we celebrate excellence in the few amongst us, we transmit that excellence to all of us, so that excellence becomes our habit and part of normative standards going forward.
These officials achieved these with very limited resources. They augmented what they had to multiply the positive results, and in the true spirit of the teachings on the beatitudes in Mathew Chapter 25:23, they are “good and faithful servants”. They did not burry the talents granted to them like the “wicked servant” who claimed God has capacity to reap where he did not saw. Our trust has grown such that more will be given to them to continue with their good work. Correctional Services is a labour intensive mission, which requires dedicated and hard-working servants, who John (15:15) describes as friends of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who used the few talents given to them to advance God’s Mission on earth, deserve praise. These will take pride when their work to empower and change those at the “lowest time of their lives” results in good upright and law abiding citizens that do not re-offend. We know how much God cherished those who connected with the weakest and poorest to give them hope and inspire them to lead better lives.
Minister Sibusiso Ndebele says all other players within the criminal justice system have the luxury of momentary interface with offenders, some of which have committed the most heinous crimes one could ever imagine, but correctional officials have to spend 24hours, 7-days per week and 365 days per year with these offenders as a major national assignment to keep South Africa safer. In many instances, these offenders are very violent and can murder, maim and traumatise correctional officials on a daily basis, which leads to high stress levels and sometimes outbursts that may results in further assaults. We are establishing and Unveiling Walls of Remembrance across the country to also acknowledge those that passed-on in service to the nation.
The overwhelming numbers of officials remain resolute and calm, which contributed in the overall reduction of incidents of assaults and violence in our facilities, although lately we have witness a slight increase. However,these officials do not give up in their work,with the high spirit of Tenacity, uttering Pauline words in Romans8:38: "IF God is for us,Who can be against us".g We know, these achievements could not have been possible either without increased legitimacy of our correctional system among families and communities who have joined hands to make it work better.
Today we are here to urge or appeal to congregants of numerous denominations and faiths to intensify prayers and support for these correctional professionals, who perform a thank less job on behalf of our nation. Galatians 6:9 urges all of us to be “generous and do good” and never tire in doing good to others. We must persevere, as our Bible teaches us, in James 1:12 that: “Blessed is the one that perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
The love you have shown to those weak among us, is the love shown to Him. We must together join hands to continue to ‘house; feed; clothe; provide health care, psychiatric and educational services, rehabilitate and facilitate re-entry into society’ of all offenders in our care. When I addressed an African Correctional Services Association (ACSA) fundraising dinner in Mozambique recently, I raised the abnormality of institutionalising the crime problem in Africa as an acquired practice inherited from colonial and apartheid regimes. Traditional African societies’ criminal justice systems were inherently restorative in character, a variable lost when prisons were introduced and used as bastions of colonial and racial oppression.
They of course dismally failed because the human spirit as embodies by among others our founding Father of Democracy – uTat’uNelson Mandela, triumphed. I raised a need to intensify the reduction of overcrowding and also of high incarceration rates across the continent of Africa. Our country remains with one of the highest rates of overcrowding and incarceration in the world despite phenomenal progress made over the past ten years in reducing overcrowding by 31 000 inmates, saving the fiscus R1.4 billion and incarceration rates from 403 to 290 inmates per 100 000 population. We need to strive to achieve what the Scandinavian countries and Netherlands have reached over the years. Norway and Sweden have introduced more open correctional centres while Netherlands has, earlier this year, closed down 19 prisons. Christianity is experiencing exponential growth in the African continent from a mere nine-million in 1900 to the expected 633 million followers in 2025.
We implore all of you as “good and faithful servants”, to gear yourselves for an unprecedented campaign to prevent, combat crime, rehabilitate to break the cycle of crime and facilitate sustainable social re-integration of offenders to help achieve levels of public safety envisaged in the National Development Plan. We must multiply our efforts. We were trustworthy with a few things and must in the same spirit, take on a much bigger responsibility so that we can come and share in our “Lord’s happiness’. Together we can move South Africa forward to a much safer place to live-in, work, invest and play.
I thank you.
