Keynote address by Deputy Minister Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa Mp (Ah! Dilizintaba), at the ICT SMME Certification Ceremony to mark the 2023 Corrections Week held at the Alberton Community Centre
National Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, Mr Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale,
Gauteng Regional Commissioner, Adv. Moeketsi Mashibini,
Acting Divisional Head: Ekurhuleni Military Veterans Directorate, Ms Jessica Matsitse,
Head: City of Johannesburg Social Development Ex-Combatants Sub-Unit, Mr Brian Masango,
SASSETA CEO, Mr. Thamsanqa Mdontswa,
Human Capital Learning Solutions CEO, Mr Harry Mathabathe,
Vaal University of Technology e-Skills Director, Ms A Lombart,
National Youth Development Agency CEO, Mr Waseen Carrim,
National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa CEO, Mr Trevor Rammitlwa,
Mara Phones SA COO, Mr Mabuti Radebe,
Officials of the DCS,
Our esteemed guests, the learners,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon!
Programme Director, the one-time world’s most famous political prisoner, who spent 27 years behind bars and went on to become the first democratically elected President of South Africa, His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Ah! Dalibhunga), said “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” High or low, all citizens of our beautiful country enjoy inalienable rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Our mandate as the Department of Correctional services is to contribute to a just, peaceful and safer South Africa, through effective and humane incarceration of inmates, rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders.
To honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela’s lifelong dedication to the struggle for human rights, the United Nations renamed the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, when they reviewed them in 2015. The 122 rules that make up the Nelson Mandela rules are anchored on the prisoners’ inherent dignity as human beings.
We have made major strides along the path of respect for human life and dignity within our Correctional Centres, however, there remains lots of room for improvement.
In 2020 the Department of Correctional Services approved the Social Reintegration Framework (SRF) to guide the work of Community Corrections, comprising some two hundred and eighteen(218) facilities nationally.
The purpose of the framework is to reposition the system of Community Corrections based on its development since inception, challenges and future prospects. This will be on the basis of outlining the mandate and functions of Community Corrections.
The Community Corrections is responsible for the facilitation of acceptance and social reintegration of offenders into their respective communities and the creation of an environment that is conducive to the successful reintegration of offenders. Community corrections places emphasis on ensuring that other stakeholders are involved in the social reintegration of parolees and probationers into the society.
In the context of this framework, placement into community corrections includes all types of conditional placement i.e. Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP), parole, day parole, medical parole and placement under correctional supervision. By keeping individuals in the community and offering supervision, interventions, and services that are responsive to their risks and needs to prevent re-offending and community supervision, can improve public safety.
The Social Reintegration Framework has among its main objectives the following:
- To reposition community corrections;
- To ensure standardization of all community corrections;
- To aid victims of crime, parolees and probationers;
- To ensure that reintegration starts while the offender is still incarcerated in a correctional facility;
- To facilitate engagement with communities, thus fostering community ownership; and,
- To offer various services such as restorative justice programmes and economic opportunities.
In order to achieve these objectives, and to advance its programmes and projects, the Department has to enhance existing strategic partnerships and establish new partnerships with other government departments and entities, the business sector, civil society organisations, Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) and tertiary institutions.
This unique Economic Stimulus intervention to empower parolees, direct victims of crime and community members (indirect victims of crime) that brought us together here today was made possible by a multi-sectoral coalition with Human Learning Capital Solutions(HCLS), SASSETA, the National Youth Development Agency(NYDA), the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa(NEMISA) and the Vaal University of Technology.
Programme Director, history will record that our main pre-occupation as a Department since the dawn of democracy has been the transition, or transformation of our service offering from a hard and rigid prisons system of yesteryear into an open transparent correctional services system, in line with our constitutional imperatives and international conventions.
In conclusion, today’s events give credence to what Minister Ronald Ozzy Lamola meant when he said that DCS is the most enterprising and entrepreneurial of our National Departments. The three-year Memorandum of Agreement signed with NEMISA earlier today will ensure that the work we are showcasing here today continues beyond Corrections Week. Through its co-labs set up in institutions of higher learning, NEMISA will assist DCS to leverage the ICT SMME model developed by HCLS and VUT and ensure that the drive for digital skills literacy does not leave parolees and victims of crime behind.
We came here today to remind each other that although high walls and security fences separate inmates from society, at all material times during incarceration inmates remain a part of us- they come from among us and will return to us upon release. Therefore, it behoves us to make every effort to rehabilitate them and help them prepare for life post-release. The government cannot do this work on its own.
Together we can do so much more.
I thank you.
