Programme Director
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Hendricks
Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner, Ms Jolingana
Area Commissioner, Ms Dumbela
Project Coordinator, Mr Matshaba
Reverend Madwe
Fort-Hare students
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
Let me express my appreciation to the organisers for bringing all of us together to work on the most important aspect of our mandate victim-offender mediation. An encounter between victims and offenders is sensitive and should always be handled with great care, sensitivity and caution. There are important lessons learnt from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, especially about the importance of truth telling during such encounters, as a vehicle for healing, understanding the other, and sometimes expressing empathy for the other. The related challenge is to find a balance between victims and offenders’ rights.
We are meeting here today united by the express need of finding the best ways of healing the wounds of crimes that were committed under different contexts, pretexts and diverse circumstances, using offender mediation.
From the onset, we must commend the University of Fort Hare, the Eastern Cape Region and the Amathole Correctional Services for daring to walk in territories where very few dare to tread the area of victim-offender mediation and restorative justice. We all split, wishing not to come any closer to those who have offended the society, yet we are all in search for a just, peaceful and crime-free society. We live with a fantasy that the Department of Correctional Services should do all the work and bring them back to society, without all of us making a contribution.
It will always be humbling to be among these brave hearts who inspite of their pain and trauma, agree to give mediation a chance, against all the odds. For victims, face-to-face with their tormentors and violators of their rights evokes mixed feelings. We can only thank these survivors who have shown the generosity of spirit. Also, we must express our understanding in case of those who might not be willing or ready to have a conversation with offenders.
As a department, we are always grateful to all survivors who find it fitting to engage those who have hurt them deeply. We see that as an act of courage and Ubuntu. We salute them and their families.
At this point, it is appropriate to introduce the importance of being conscious of victims’ rights or our commitment that, no matter what we do in correcting offending behaviour, our ultimate goal is to protect victims’ interests. Success in rehabilitating offenders is a guarantee of non-repetition of further offences.
A balancing act: rights of victims and offenders
When we presented our 2009 budget vote at the National Assembly, we singled out the fundamental issue of victims’ rights as one of our priority areas. We made a promise to the Members of Parliament and all our people that we will do everything in our power to ensure that victims and their needs remain at the centre of the criminal justice system. We committed ourselves to ensuring that our work with offenders does not compromise our duty and responsibility towards the victims of crime. However, bearing in mind the Bill of Rights entrenched in our Constitution, the commitment we made demands of us a carefully navigated balancing act.
Legislative framework:
The Constitution of 1996: protection of rights of victims. The founding provisions of our Constitution of 1996, which is the supreme law of our country, guarantee the values of “human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms” for all. In our context, the Bill of Rights protects those who have hurt us the most through their offending behaviour.
The Bill of Rights, which is “the cornerstone of the legislation which governs correctional services” (Judicial Inspectorate Annual Report 2008/09), calls upon us to “respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights” (Section 7) of all people in our country. The equality clause states that “everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law” (Section 9). Section 10 on Human Dignity reminds us that “everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.”
These constitutional rights are undermined each time a crime is committed. In the case of victims, we are required by the law to protect these rights by removing perpetrators from society, for rehabilitation purposes. The call by President Jacob Zuma, during his first State of the Nation Address, in 2009, imploring all of us to work tirelessly in creating a safe and caring society, cannot be completed without bringing the two together, meaning offenders and victims.
In the spirit of Section 234 of the Constitution on “Charters of Rights”, we have given our people a Service Charter for Victims of Crime in South Africa.
The Victims’ Charter
The adoption of the Victims’ Charter is a milestone in the South African criminal justice system and plans are apace fully to implement its tenets. The Victims’ Charter has helped us consolidate the legal framework relating to the rights of and services provided to the victims of crime. This shift in favour of victims was brought about by the realisation that crime is more than just an offence against the state, but it is also an injury against real living persons.
The rights in the Charter can be promoted if we work together in partnership to implement its provisions that are meant to protect the victims, including:
* The right to be treated with fairness and with respect for your dignity and privacy
* The right to offer information
* The right to receive information
* The right to protection
* The right to assistance
* The right to compensation
* The right to restitution
Officials in Correctional Services as well as those in other sister departments within the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, have a duty to ensure these rights are promoted in the best interest of the victims. Ignoring, as an example, the right to provide information to the victim regarding the status of a case whether or not the offender has been arrested, charged, granted bail, sentenced or released on parole can have dire consequences to the victims. We appeal strongly to our officials to go out to the victims and see to it that victims are not taken by surprise when seeing perpetrators walking along the streets freely, without their knowledge.
Partnering with an institution with a rich culture of academic excellence and an impeccable political record, like the University of Fort Hare, will help us translate into action the “victim-cantered vision” of the Victims’ Charter. Institutions of higher learning could also offer our officials continued learning on the practice of such a delicate technique, meaning victim-offender mediation.
The 2005 White Paper on Corrections in South Africa
Victim-offender mediation is given serious attention in the 2005 White Paper on Corrections. Chapter Four of the White Paper identifies “Reconciliation of the offender with the community” as one of our ten key priorities. It directs us to “address the reconciliation of the offender with the community and heal the relationship with the victims. This includes the restoration of trust and/or loss where applicable, as an integral part of rehabilitation and reintegration.” The reasoning behind this approach is that “non-reconciliation with the community increases the risk of recidivism as the offender remains alienated from the community.”
Our policy on restorative justice
The Department of Correctional Services launched the restorative justice approach in 2001 as one of the strategies for restoring the dignity of the victims of crime and for purposes of the proper rehabilitation of offenders. The restorative justice programme helps us to educate the perpetrators about the effects of crime on society as a whole.
The objectives of our Policy on Restorative Justice include the following:
* To provide direction for the provision of victim-offender mediation and other related restorative justice services within the context of parole hearings to victims and to offenders who are interested in repairing the harm caused by their offending behaviour
* To develop knowledge and best practices on the design, development and implementation of restorative justice programmes. Collaboration with the University has helped us in this regard
* To promote healing and restoration of relationships among offenders, families, victims and communities, while at the same time correcting offending behaviour
* To successfully integrate offenders back into the community as law abiding citizens.
It is in this context that we place more emphasis on the important role of victims, families and the community, by involving them in the justice process. Indeed, we can do more to heal what has been broken by crime, as rehabilitation is a societal responsibility.
The essence of victim-offender mediation
The victims and their families who are here today present a living testimony to the trauma and indignation that go with treacherous acts committed against the innocent. Someone breaking into your house in the middle of the night, threatening violence, forcefully removing your goods, violating women and children in the most horrendous and callous of ways, strips you of all dignity and freedom, and challenges your constitutional right to life, equality and human dignity. In some cases, such experiences make a person to be imprisoned in fear and trauma for many years to come, or sometimes sadly for life.
The decision of our administration to take drastic steps to protect our people from crime is informed by these dehumanising effects of crime. Since we took over power from the apartheid regime and created a democratic state, guided by the spirit of the Freedom Charter on the imperative to work together for peace, security, friendship, comfort, and the protection of all, we have committed ourselves to defending the rights of victims.
Having seen the power of victim-offender mediation, we should not lose sight of long term consequences of pain and suffering. My plea is that we should continue campaigning for resources and mechanisms for promoting healing for all victims. Healing the wounds cannot come cheap; it calls for reparations and rehabilitative measures for dealing with long term consequences of suffering. On their part, those who have offended individuals and the society at large, should remember that any relapse back to criminal behaviour does not only affect new victims, but all others who have previously suffered from crime.
Conclusion
My message to all of us today is that, as citizens, meaning, families, the private sector, and other civil society institutions, let us find it in our hearts to forgive and extend an olive branch to our brothers and sisters who have offended us in so many different ways. When we forgive, we remove the burden of anger and hatred and we find peace within ourselves. It is the reclaim for individual freedoms which should drive and energise us to journey with our offenders.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
David Hlabane
Cell: 082 052 3499
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
24 October 2009
