Mayor of Fezile Dabi District Municipality, Councillor Ramogwase
Mayor of Metsimaholo Local Municipality, Councillor Mahlaku
Councillors
Acting National Commissioner, Ms Schreiner
Regional Commissioner, Mr Modise
Chairperson of the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board, Mr Litsoane
Representatives of various organisations here today
Ladies and gentlemen
I am very pleased to be here today marking the first day of our annual Corrections Week. This Corrections Week is a national program of the Department of Correctional Services. It is primarily aimed at raising awareness levels about the mandate of this department and also provides a series of focussed sessions in this regard. In the main there are a few core messages that I would like us all to embrace as part of this special program.
These are:
* We must all acknowledge that corrections is a societal responsibility
* To the extent that this department is a part of the security cluster and the criminal justice system, our primary responsibility is to incarcerate offenders and as far as possible ensure their rehabilitation and re-integration into society
* We must continue to honour our constitutional obligation to respect human rights this includes the rights of our own workers and partners, the human dignity of the offenders and the rights of the victims and society as a whole.
* We continue to believe that the development of our people remains at the core of breaking the cycle of crime in our country
* We must also put more effort in the better utilisation of offender labour for offender development as well as broader societal development
* We must further acknowledge the need to ensure that the department graduates to higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency
* The plight of vulnerable groups in our facilities needs particular attention, especially women, children, youth and the disabled.
It is not my intention to burden you with a long speech. I hope that you will bear with me as I sketch a reflection of the tasks we face.
This is my first visit to this facility and I think nothing could have been better. For me it is extremely significant that we are at this particular facility today. It is worth recalling that a child born 16 June 1976 that date that forever changed the course of our history in South Africa a child born on June 1976 would be 33 years today. A child born in 1994 the so called “born frees” would be 15 years old.
The sadness of this basic fact is that according to our statistics, young people between the ages of 15 and 33 still form a huge chunk of persons incarcerated in our correctional facilities. Our data shows that the national youth offender population currently sits at about 57 620. 33 946 of these offenders are un-sentenced. An even more worrying trend is that it is youth aged between 22 years and 25 years that commit the most aggressive/violent crimes followed closely by economic crimes.
I do not think that it is pure coincidence and chance that the violent age group was born in the 1980’s a significantly turbulent time in our history. By the time these children were turning 16 (around 1996), this coincided with a country that itself was experiencing a national identity crisis in the socio-political sphere. Our collective psyche was characterised by feelings of great expectations mixed with a sense of uncertainty for many others. Years later we look at this generation from behind bars. We look at them and we see a reflection of ourselves.
It is because of this that I need to appeal to all members of our community to embrace these young people. Yes they have offended. Yes, some have hurt us in the most violent ways possible. They do remain, however, someone’s son, brother, daughter, sister, mother, father etc. I want to take this opportunity to make an impassioned plea to family members and friends of those incarcerated here and elsewhere in this country. Please make an effort to be in touch with these young people. You may not be able to always travel to see them but maybe one letter a month, a visit every month these things give them hope for a future beyond these walls and fences.
If we indeed want to break the vicious cycle of crime we must build communities that believe in second chances. We all deserve a second chance in life. Once these young people have served their time here let us not repeat their sentence by turning them into social outcasts.
I must now turn to a subject that I feel very passionate about when I address the matter of youth offenders. This is the matter of education. I want to urge all young offenders to use their period of incarceration to learn. Groenpunt is one of our centres of excellence in the department. I was very happy to learn that this facility was built using offender labour from the maximum and medium facilities.
A policy area that I have instructed the department to re-look and strengthen is that of ensuring that our offenders are directed to meaningful work. This work must be directed at ensuring a reduction in poverty levels in our communities, infrastructure development and rural development.
The Correctional Services Act is very clear that offender labour shall not be used as a form of punishment. Offender labour can benefit the skills base of offenders whilst benefiting our broader society. The proper utilisation of offender labour will, in my opinion, go a long way in fostering misconceptions and mistrust of offenders while ensuring better social empathy and facilitating re-integration.
On the education front though, there is the need for young people to use these facilities to further their own development. This improves your chances of integrating into society upon their release. I am aware of the challenges we face with regard to educators in the system and their accreditation and I am confident that this government will work tirelessly at ensuring that we achieve the objectives of educating every child in South Africa as stated by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address this year, I for one will do my best to ensure we achieve this goal. There is a need for the department to look at how some of our facilities can be better used to focus on education, training and development as best education and training facilities in the correctional system some exclusively dedicated to this.
Let me take my ministerial hat off for a few moments and speak to you as a mother of four boys. No mother ever gives birth and raises a child so that this child can end up behind bars. I can confidently say that your parents spend sleepless nights and will do so until you leave this place. Some of you may not have spoken to your family members because you may be here because you have wronged those same members. Believe me, they would rather have you at home than here.
My message to all the inmates in our facilities is that incarceration is not the end of the road for you. With earnest remorse, self exertion, discipline and will a whole new world of possibilities awaits you.
Allow me at this point to thank employees of the department. I want to focus more on those that are not on Senior Management Service (SMS) levels but who ensure that the system continues to function despite the challenges we face. We are doing well with the implementation of the seven day establishment and the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD).
There are places where the numbers have just made it extremely difficult to cope. I want these ordinary members to know that we are very aware of their plight and working very hard at ensuring that these problems are resolved. It is this discipline that pushes and encourages us to work even harder at improving the conditions of our officers especially those at the bottom levels. In the same breath, I must voice my disappointment at those who have sought to use the change over for their own gain while placing the lives of fellow officers and inmates at risk.
This is unacceptable and makes a mockery of our efforts to be taken seriously in the security cluster. We will continue to act without hesitation at those that undermine the integrity of our systems and processes. Finally, as we begin this Corrections week, I would like us to spare a thought for those lives that have been lost in the course of delivering our services officers and inmates alike. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have lost loved ones during the course of this year.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
21 September 2009
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za/)
