Programme Directors, Mr Sammy Mnqayi and Director Nonhlanhla Dlamini
Amakhosi
Regional Commissioner, Mr Mnikelwa Nxele
Mayor of Umhlatuze, Honourable Zakhele Mnqayi
Area Commissioner of Empangeni, Mr Eroll Korabie
Commissioner for Development of Care (CDC), Ms Subashini Moodley
Our stakeholders
Management and officials of DCS
Offenders
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It fills me with great joy to commemorate with you the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville and Langa massacres. Of importance is the fact that this important historical moment is shared with both offenders and members of civil society ahead of the national celebrations of Human Rights Day.
This event precedes our department’s budget vote debate of 25 March 2010 at which human rights are expected to be high on the agenda. As we all know, the national commemoration will be in Sharpeville, on Sunday, 21 March. It will be addressed by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe as acting President and many of our leaders who, through years of our struggles for liberation, made it possible for us to assemble here in what was once a restricted security area but turned around by our democratic government to a Qalakabusha Correctional Centre.
Events of Monday, 21 March 1960, during which peaceful protesters against pass laws came under heavy police fire, defined an important phase in the history of the struggle against apartheid and racism in South Africa. Sixty nine people, including women and children, were killed in a cold-blooded manner by fascist apartheid police in Sharpeville. The sheer brutality and unimaginable cruelty meted out against the African people was sufficient enough to leave an indelible mark on the people’s collective memory. Not only Sharpeville was bleeding. The whole country was bleeding! Every mother in our land was weeping for the precious lives of children that were spilt in dirty streets like spoilt milk.
But why are these developments so important that when we took over political power from apartheid rulers we chose to declare 21 March previously called Sharpeville Day, a Human Rights Day? The positive outcome of what was the saddest day on the part of the oppressed people is that it drew the attention of the international community to the brutal nature of the apartheid system. It was after the bloodshed in the streets of Sharpeville that the United Nations held a special session on South Africa and declared the apartheid state ‘a crime against humanity’. Countries like Sweden chose to identify with the people of South Africa.
The United Nations’ debate was guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 which states in article one that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood”. Article three states that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. Simon Mofokeng, the Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) Sedibeng Region has reminded us in the official online newsletter of our movement �" ANC Today that, I quote: “The changes brought by the new dispensation attained in 1994 did not come free or on a silver platter. Our people paid dearly with their lives; and many others, including Tata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo spent the better part of their lives in prison and exile, respectively”, (ANC Today, Volume. 10 No. 9, 12 to 18 March 2010).
There are many unsung heroes who were killed, raped, maimed, tortured, and detained without trial for demanding the rights and freedoms for all as adopted by the people of South Africa in Kliptown in 1955.
As we commemorate Human Rights Day this year, we are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the first democratically-elected President of the Republic of South Africa, Tata Madiba, from prison. He was released on 11 February 1990.
This year, at Pollsmoor, where Tata Madiba spent some of his last years, we commemorated his release, on 11 February. Freedom-fighters who themselves had been affected by the state orchestrated violence, were unanimous in terms of saying in honour of Mandela’s legacy, we would have to turn our correctional centres around, from being militarised hubs of human rights abuse to being human rights-centred centres of rehabilitation, development and care.
Simon Mofokeng drives home the important message that: “As we commemorate 50 years of the Sharpeville Massacre and our Human Rights Day, we must strive to uphold and advance human rights of everybody. We must address the concerns of our people which if we continue to undermine or ignore will make us guilty of perpetuating the past experiences”.
We have given South Africa a progressive constitution, one of the very best in the world. The Constitution of 1996 has an entrenched Bill of Rights which helps us to protect and promote democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.
As the Department of Correctional Services, to give effect to our country’s human rights-centred laws, we have developed a progressive White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005) which, together with the Correctional Services Amendment Act of 2008, compel us consciously to promote a human rights culture in our correctional system, stressing incarceration within a safe, secure and humane environment (White Paper, page 15).
We want to urge our offenders to use mechanisms put in place to protect their human rights. One of the effective protectors of rights at your disposal is the Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services, currently, the Honourable Judge Deon Van Zyl. His office’s mandate is to promote human rights of all inmates.
This day is the reminder that promoting a conducive environment is a responsibility we cannot afford to delay. We have to give it our urgent attention.
Human Rights Day should therefore serve to remind us that all South Africans have the right to dignity and to fair treatment. It is in this context that we are obliged to promote, defend and guarantee human rights of all our inmates.
As Correctional Services, we face the challenge of finding a balance between victims and offenders’ rights. No matter what we do in correcting offending behaviour, our ultimate goal is to protect victims’ interests. South Africa has adopted a Victims’ Charter which 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.
We all must realise that rights can only make a difference in our lives only if we all rise up and take a stand to defend them. None but ourselves can protect the giant leap we have made from oppression to a human rights-centred national democratic society.
Every offender here, every correctional official here, and of course all of us, have a duty to ensure that our rights as human beings and the rights of those around us are respected and protected at all times. As offenders, locked up in here, you must realise that there is no way you can enjoy your right to be free, to the fullest. What would be freedom in jail? It is your duty to behave; to participate in rehabilitation programmes offered to you; to study hard and to learn as many skills as you possibly can, while you’re still in here �" Qalakabusha!
Only you have the power to ensure that you qualify quickly for parole. It is only you who can see to it that when you get out of here, you bid prison goodbye for the very last time, never to come back this way ever again. Make no mistake, we won’t miss you! We have no room for you here! It is your people and the world out there who miss you most dearly.
Doing crime, robbing, raping or killing our own sisters and brothers is not and can never be, one of the many ways of showing the world that change in our beloved country did not come free or on a silver platter.
In the interest of your rights, the rights of offenders under your care, and the rights of all the people in South Africa, we appeal sincerely to our officials and managers to treat offenders with care, teaching them to love and respect their fellow sisters and brothers. You are better placed to help us realise the vision articulated in the Freedom Charter, which says, “Imprisonment shall aim at re-education, not vengeance”.
Our department has a responsibility to create an environment ensuring gender equality, by among other things, creating facilities that are conducive to women and children’s rights.
Women’s rights should be defended by all lovers of peace and security. Some of you are incarcerated for sexual crimes and other forms of domestic violence. Again, that is a serious violation of human rights. Our communities have a duty to help us break the cycle of crime �" Sonke kufanele siphonse itshe esivivaneni!
The responsibility of all of us is to defend our Constitution. Crime prevention is one of our major responsibilities to ensure that South Africans and all our friends enjoy peace and security in our beautiful land. It is under such a desirable climate of peace and security that we can host, as we are going to, successful world events like the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Be assured that South Africa is ready to give the world a World Cup to remember.
In realising the inherent human dignity of all, we expect our officials to ensure that they use the 2010 spirit to accelerate interest in sport. Through sport, they must teach inmates certain values and principles, including teamwork, cooperation, endurance and tolerance.
As responsible members of society, if you do not accept ex-offenders back, and you continue stigmatising them as many are doing, you are leaving them with no other choice but to re-offend and come back in here again. It is only by showing humanity to others that they can also show humanity to us. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabanye abantu! You are because we are!
With these words we wish you a happy Human Rights Day!
Ngiyabonga!
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
18 March 2010
