Programme director, Ms Madi
Regional Commissioner, Advocate Mqobi
Area Commissioner, Mr Mashiya
Representatives from Department of Education
Representatives from Department of Community Safety
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
DCS stakeholders, colleagues and offenders
Educators and learners from Queens and East Bank High Schools
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Let me start by saying I am deeply moved by this occasion. This day is very important because it gives us the opportunity to interact with both learners and offenders, under one roof. As a mother, an activist and a teacher, the destiny of our nation’s children sits very close to my heart. As you know, what has brought us together is the campaign of the Department of Correctional Services generally known as Corrections Week. This campaign began in September 2006 to take stock of the work that we do as a department.
Corrections Week takes place every year. It seeks to show what we have done to create a just, safe and caring society. Every year we choose a specific theme or key message that helps us explain those areas we have identified as top priorities. Our theme for this year is, “Together doing more to break the cycle of crime.” This theme says to us crime is one of our major challenges. It reminds us that we can create a safe place to live in by working together to address the root causes of crime. And so, what we are saying to you today is that all of us have a role to play in building a normal society in which we can all grow, work and live happily.
The past two days of Corrections Week have been very inspiring. I was touched by the community outreach project I observed at the Modimolle Centre of Excellence. There offenders are involved in a massive garden project. They take vegetables from the garden to a home for children at risk. We must use examples like Modimolle to urge offenders to work hard while under our care. We would be failing in our duty if we were to turn correctional facilities into some kind of pleasure resorts. Remember, we are bound by the law to promote offender labour. And through work, offenders acquire new skills and learn to take responsibility for their actions.
Yesterday, Losperfontein Correctional Centre, in partnership with the North West Provincial Youth Commission, presented the Basha Arts Programme for youth in conflict with the law. Basha Arts will help us deploy arts and culture as vehicles for teaching and learning new behaviours. We have done this before in a different time and different conditions, in the days of the old country.
In those days we used culture as a weapon of struggle against political oppression and suppression. And so today, empowered by a new set of conditions, we have to use arts and culture as tools for rehumanising our society and for breaking the cycle of crime.
Today, the third day of the campaign, we are witnessing yet another important programme pillar to post which demonstrates the partnership and commitment of South Africans who have heeded the important call made by our President, Jacob Zuma, during his first State of the Nation Address in Parliament. The President urged us, together to do more to fight crime.
Pillar to post started in February 2007. The partners include the Department of Correctional Services, Gauteng Department of Education and the Department of Community Safety. Pillar to post has assisted us to break the cycle of crime by hosting school tours to different Correctional Centres in Gauteng. The important function of these tours has been to demonstrate to our learners that crime doesn’t pay. We must commend Leeuwkop because this project was piloted here. A warm thank you is once more extended to our sister departments in government who support this initiative. We also commend the offenders who have decided to take part in pillar to post to prevent others from landing on the wrong side of the law.
This year’s Corrections Week is significant also because it falls within the week of heritage day, celebrated tomorrow. On heritage day it is every South African’s right to embrace and celebrate our rich heritage. Talking about Heritage Day reminds me of a profound statement made by the former President, Ubawo Nelson Mandela, on 21 September 2004.
At the opening of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Commemoration he said, “One of our challenges as we build and extend democracy, is the need to ensure that our youth know where we came from, what we have done to break the shackles of our oppression, and how we have pursued the journey to freedom and dignity”.
We share the views expressed by Utata Madiba because we believe our history must indeed serve as a living testimony to the long walk we took to be where we are today. I challenge the young people of this day and age to tell us what they have done for society; something that will make us to remember their ‘life and times’. We have come this far because at every epoch in our history, it was the young people who set the agenda of change and determined where we had to go and most importantly, how we had to get there. And these things were done under very difficult conditions.
For the sake of our learners, let me remind you how fortunate it is to be a citizen of a democratic country like ours. Those of us with good memories will remember that back in 1953, the apartheid government introduced what was called the Bantu Education Act. That law was premised on a very misleading assumption that the African people must be taught that equality with the white people was not for them.
It is this ideology, this way of thinking, which led to the provision of inferior Bantu Education for the African people. So, African children at that time had to learn under untenable conditions, in segregated schools, under the yoke of corporal punishment. This is what informed the education clause in the Freedom Charter, “The doors of learning and culture shall be opened for all.”
The important lesson to learn from this is that those harsh conditions under apartheid produced daring leaders out of the younger generations. The class of 1976 shall always be remembered for the valiant stance they took against Bantu Education. The youth of the 80’s who grew up at a time when our country was plunged into a kind of state of war because of apartheid laws shall be remembered for the brave stand they took against gutter education.
You are fortunate today to grow up in the new country that places a high premium on democracy and human rights. Gone are the days when teachers punished learners with impunity and without regard to human rights. The doors of learning and culture are being opened. You have one of the best Constitutions in the country which protects your rights, including the right to human dignity and to education. Looking at all the positive things we have done to provide a better life for all our people, it pains me deeply to note that by August 2009, we had
* 23 674 sentenced young offenders
* 33 946 unsentenced young offenders
* 7 673 of these young offenders are found in Gauteng.
The Minister of Police, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, yesterday released crime statistics showing that we still have to do more to rid our society of crime.
Finally, my message to our learners is very simple. You must follow the directive from pillar to post, which says, “Never trade your uniform of excellence for a uniform of regret.” Stick to your beautiful royal queens and east bank attire. Use education as a tool for creating a better life for yourselves, for your loved ones, and for generations to come.
To our offenders we say, Take your rehabilitation programmes seriously and get out of this place, never to come back again. When you get out of here, tell yourself never again will you get into the uniform that strips you of your liberty. Go back to your communities to protect the innocent and to make those around you feel safe. We don’t want you here again! Live according to the spirit of “Ubuntu” which teaches that “I am because we are”. To our correctional officials we say keep up the good work. I wish you all a fruitful and fulfilling Corrections Week and Heritage Day.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
David Hlabane
Cell: 082 056 3499
E-mail: david.hlabane@dcs.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
23 September 2009
