Introduction
Honourable Deputy Minister of Public Works, Ms Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu, MP
Management of IDT
Executive mayor
Community leaders represented here
Councillors
Managers of municipalities and all government officials in our midst
Ladies and gentlemen I am greatly honoured to be part of this timely and strategic conference. The development week offers an opportunity to reflect on progress made, opportunities and challenges. Hunger as the symptom of under development is the challenge of our times. It is the social ill which undermines our hard earned freedom.
The denial of the majority of people, the realisation of the right to food security, is a threat to peace and security. The under development of the majority of South Africans makes us to remain imprisoned in the racial divides of the past, with the majority of poor people, coming from previously marginalised blacks and the haves coming from the privileged white minority.
As the Department of Correctional Services, the realities of lack of skills, unemployment, the dangers of living in abject poverty, manifest themselves through overcrowding in our facilities and the high rate of recidivism.
When we were engaged in the liberation struggle, we understood very well that beyond the political freedom we were fighting for, the remaining task of the National Democratic Revolution would be to make a significant change in the material conditions of the majority of the people of this country, who were deliberately under-serviced, under-developed and systematically disadvantaged by the apartheid government.
Our Rights based Constitution‘s ultimate goal is the restoration of dignity of those who lost out the most during the Apartheid years. My opening remarks are frank and robust so as to make sure that, coming out of the 2011 development week, it cannot be business as usual, we have to accelerate our efforts as civil society, politicians, private entities as well as government.
We are now in the 16th year of the democratic rule and that goal still drives us as much it did then.We can’t rest the conditions for many people and communities in our country don’t allow us to. Our constitution guarantees citizens basic rights to sufficient food, water and social security. We need to work tirelessly with all our social partners, even as represented in this occasion to ensure that these ideals are fully realised in South Africa, sooner rather than later.
Restoring lost souls
I have been asked to address this gathering under the subject; Rehabilitation and realising the potential of former inmates as an asset to the community.
I’m sure for some your if you find yourself within the vicinity of an inmate; your immediate reaction is discomfort and fear, which is understandable.You start wondering about what crimes they might have committed, whether they are perpetrators of petty or serious offences and if you are safe being in their presence.
Well, we at Correctional Services, have all their criminal profiles and so we know the detail of how they may have hurt others, destroyed lives and sinned against society through different acts of criminality. But we also know that a lot of them have an immense capacity to change for the better, and so we capitilise on this potential.
We therefore have committed ourselves to doing everything within our means to positively influence most of the offenders in our facilities, so that they become valuable members of society. We know that communities have shunned them and view them in the worst possible manner, but as I have already indicated, we have seen many blossoming and coming out of our facilities as extremely talented and gifted people.
The White Paper on Corrections which spells out the core mandate of the department emphasises the rehabilitation of offenders. Our policy talks about the offender rehabilitation path.
Working together with our partners, we have designed various rehabilitation programmes aimed at ensuring that offenders take responsibility for their deviant behaviour and that ultimately they embrace positive values and morals, so that when they leave correctional centres, they would have acquired knowledge and skills needed in society, especially for driving sustainable development in their communities.
We rehabilitate offenders holistically, by focusing on their social, psychological, spiritual, educational and skilling needs. Offenders are classified on arrival and put in offence specific programmes.
For example some of the key focus areas of rehabilitation are:
- Anger management
- Substance abuse
- Sexual offences
- Basic and higher education
- Skills development in areas such as manufacturing, carpentry, farming and other forms of food production.
The role of offenders in rebuilding our nation
We acknowledge that there is still a great need for extensive research to assess and quantify the impact of our Rehabilitation programmes, but we know of many personal stories of offenders who have left our facilities and went to become model citizens, some even role models through positive contribution in their communities.
Others have gone on to establish successful businesses, some established church ministries which assist in improving the spiritual well-being of many in their communities; others have committed themselves to different forms of community development work.
There are those who as a result of the success of rehabilitation in their personal lives, have chosen to come back into our facilities to help motivate and guide inmates who are still incarcerated to pursue positive change.
In his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, President Jacob Zuma committed the government to strengthening efforts aimed at fighting poverty through creating more job opportunities, especially among young people, he said, “The most urgent focus of policy change must be interventions to create jobs for young people. Unemployment rates for young people are substantially higher than the average. Proposals will be tabled to subsidise the cost of hiring younger workers, to encourage firms to take on inexperienced staff. A further expansion of public employment programmes is also underway. This includes local infrastructure and tertiary projects and literacy projects, home-based care, school maintenance and early childhood development initiatives.”
It troubles us that many of the young people who should be benefiting from these initiatives, are instead locked up inside our facilities, serving sentences for criminal offences. The challenge for those who leave our centres, either through placement on parole, or because they’ve finished serving their sentences, is that despite the fact that they have been empowered with the necessary skills and have reformed, society continues to view them with suspicion and therefore rejects them.
Families, neighbours, communities refuse to accept them back, and upon learning of their criminal record, companies refuse to offer ex-offenders opportunities that will enable them to re-establish their lives and contribute meaningfully to society.
I need to point out that we are conscious that our mandate also compels us to ensure that the citizens of our country are protected from danger and harm. Thus policies and systems are in place to ensure that those offenders whom we believe pose a greater risk to society, are kept inside our maximum security facilities for as long as they need to be locked up. We are also strengthening our parole processes to minimise the risk of exposing society to unreformed and dangerous offenders.
We believe that rehabilitation of offenders is a societal responsibility. We’ll appeal to all partners gathered here this week to see our inmates as a critical force in development and to support us in our efforts, especially when it comes to offender labour. We need land, tools, bricks, books, seeds, you name it for our inmates to realise their goals and to pursue their often desired change.
Energising people for sustainable development
I need to emphasise, programme director that sustainable development is key to poverty alleviation. We have to stand together in ensuring that we develop a sense of urgency in removing all the barriers. Corruption, maladministration and other injustice are not condusive to development and as such should be condemned by all.
Those who undermine our good governance instruments should be named and shamed. There are lessons to be learned from the goal of government’s Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, which is to; ‘ensure that all in South Africa will be safe and feel safe.’ Underdevelopment is a threat to our sense of security and people‘s self esteem.
Ladies and gentlemen I am here to make an appeal that we all need to change the way we develop our country and grow our wealth. As agents and activists for change, we should defend the right to development for all, through education and skills transfer. It is only then, that we can achieve social cohesion and a sense of peace, security and stability.
I thank you.
