Speaker
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable members
Chairperson of the National Council for Correctional Services, Judge Desai
Inspecting Judge, Judge Van Zyl
National Commissioner of Correctional Services
Our distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am grateful for this opportunity to present the Correctional Services Budget to this House and, in doing so, I must thank my predecessor, Mr Ngconde Balfour, for the work he has done together with his Deputy, Ms Loretta Jacobus.
This speech is our map going forward, on the basis of the marching orders we got from our President who said in the State of the Nation Address and the Presidency Budget Vote, among other things:
“We (must) work with the people and our public servants in particular, to build a developmental state, improve public services and strengthen democratic institutions. We have to work harder and smarter to achieve all these objectives and we believe that the leadership of government is equal to the task.”
It is quite clear to us that the President wants us to create partnerships with our people, across the board, and give leadership to our public servants and, together, design smarter ways in which to work to create conditions that will allow us to deliver the kind of service that will raise the level of our corrections system to compare favourably with the best in the world.
We must, therefore, look exhaustively at governance matters at Corrections and opt for measures that will provide us with a solid administration that will be the building block towards a formidable vehicle which, among other things, will raise the standard of work, enthusiasm, creativity and loyalty, on the part of all officials and which will clean out all the systems and put paid to corruption.
My first impressions in the department are that there seems to be willingness from the majority of the officials to help create a new ethos at Corrections that will satisfy the orders given by the President. I want to assure those who want to contribute in the manner defined by the President that their commitment will be rewarded. Those who want to be a drawback will be dealt with in accordance with our regulations and the relevant law.
There is space for all officials at Corrections to interact with the Minister via e-mail. En route to this Budget Vote presentation, a number of officials communicated with me about a variety of things they wanted me to pay particular attention to. I have read each of those comments with interest and although I may not meet all the expectations raised, I want to assure the concerned officials that I have not spiked any of the submissions. I will find time in the future to interact with the officials.
Allow me to extend a special greeting to those officers and offenders watching this interaction from our various Correctional Centres. Speaker, as with most things in life, the future is sometimes best seen through the lens of the past. This is very important because it enables us to appreciate the strides we have taken as well as understand our shortcomings and better commit to sound plans and programmes going into the future. This Parliament sits here with a renewed sense of purpose and strength best expressed by the President in his inauguration speech. It is at moments like this that we need to take a step back and ask ourselves: “What is the reason for existence of the Department of Correctional Services?” Allow us, Speaker, to answer that question in the following way:
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is a critical component of the Justice,Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster. It is also an integral part of our social services cluster given that it is also about people and is about society. It is about victims; it is about correctional officers; it is about families; it is about communities and offenders. It is critical that as we debate this budget we be reminded of this vast mandate and the impact it has on our security as state as well as the values of our communities.
The DCS is a large institution boasting over 40 000 employees and over 115 753 sentenced offenders and 49 477 awaiting trial detainees. As you can imagine, it takes a well-oiled machinery of systems, processes and people to effectively and efficiently manage service delivery in the Department. The number of officials will be increased during the current financial year by 2200. In the process of increasing our human resources we are aware particularly of the challenges we face with regard to equity ion the workplace.
Ayanda Mathwala and Belinda Low-Shang are part of the personnel of the DCS who have urged me and the Deputy Minister to pay particular attention to the matter of gender equity in the department. This is a matter we will not fail you in. We have already raised the issue with senior management. We want to see capable women and disabled persons in all the levels of our department in operations and administration.
While on these matters Speaker, allow me to address some issues of governance in the department and the Auditor-General’s report. The Department has moved from five qualifications in the 2006/07 report to one qualification for the 2007/08 Financial Year. This is a welcome achievement by the department. This single matter that the AG was not satisfied with, relates to asset management. Although we are committed to pursuing a clean Audit Report, I must say that it is likely that the issue of asset management will be a thorn in our side even in the 2008/09 budget. We will be working closely with the Auditor General’s office to deal with this and other matters of concern that Office has raised as part of our risk management processes.
One of the many matters we have had to contend with in our service delivery, the matter of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), has received widespread attention. I am pleased to confirm that in the early hours of Wednesday, 24 June, the Employer and the Unions signed Resolution 2/2009 on the OSD. All parties to this process have committed to close interaction based on mutual respect – even when we differ. We will continue to strengthen existing structures to sustain these relations. I must also thank the efforts of our own DCS team who worked diligently with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and National Treasury to deliver us to this point.
Honourable members, together with the DPSA and Treasury we have established a team to implement the OSD agreement. The team will report to the Ministers every month on progress. We will also be seeking solutions to the critical matter of attracting scarce skills into the Department and retaining them. These skills are mainly in the health and medical professions which are a core pillar of services expected of the department.
Speaker, we wish to further announce that we will be implementing the seven-day establishment as from tomorrow, 1 July 2009. We have been interfacing with the Minster for Public Service and Administration for the matter to be regulated which will go a long way in curbing over expenditure that saw us beginning this financial year with a R500 million deficit mainly caused by weekend overtime claims. This forced the department to introduce drastic cost-cutting measures which included placing a moratorium on the filling of certain posts. I call on all officials to join us in this journey and for them to ensure a smooth transition from the five day to the seven-day establishment.
Speaker, we have taken note of concerns expressing a need for budget-realignment to better reflect the commitment to our rehabilitation, care and development as well as social integration programmes. Let me paraphrase the White Paper and remind this house Speaker, that our approach to corrections is based on the understanding that the issue is not the duty of the DCS alone. It is a joint responsibility that begins with the family and society’s institutions of religion, education, culture etc. Of course, it is the responsibility of the DCS, as part of the Criminal Justice System, to mend the broken pieces primarily through its Correctional Sentence Plan.
The department’s care and development programme talks to the following matters:
* enhancement and creation of opportunities
* acquisition of knowledge and new skills
* development of an appropriate attitude of serving with excellence
* pursuit of a programme for self sustainability of Correctional Centres
* achievement of principled relations with others, and
* the preparation of the offender to return to society with an improved chance of leading a crime free life as a productive and law abiding citizen.
In his book “The Number” (a book on the numbers gangs in South African prisons), Jonny Steinberg relates the words of one of his characters in Pollsmoor as follows:
“You go into prison on a charge of common assault…when you get out, that’s it; your record says you are a criminal. Nobody will ever give you a job. So you become a criminal, because that’s all that is left for you…The system Sir, is a factory for criminals. It makes criminals out of decent people.”
This speaks to everything we do not want in our facilities. Yet it is a reality in some cases. Of course, we do not want our facilities to be “factories for criminals”. On the other hand, we cannot allow our centres to become places for vanity and be so comfortable as to encourage repeat offending that has been seeing many offenders returning to prison. This is a very difficult balance to maintain. On the one hand there is Correctional Services while on the other is society. The first balance, therefore, is in the relationship between the two. When offenders are released from the Correctional Centres they must be accommodated by society and be helped to stay away from crime and away from prison.
One of our officers, Mr D Jackson, had this to say in his e-mail to me:
“I know there are farms that can be used to help fight poverty in this country…with small inputs to utilise our capacity we can help people that are in big need”.
I share the sentiment expressed by this concerned officer. Allow me Speaker to address the matter of offender labour. The Correctional Services Act requires that sufficient work must be provided, as far as practicable, to keep sentenced offenders active for a normal working day and an offender may be compelled to do such work. Unfortunately, many offenders are not kept active for a normal working day due to a number of factors, such as the unavailability of suitable work opportunities as well as personnel and security considerations. The Act also allows the offender to elect the type of work he or she prefers to perform, if such choice is in accordance with an appropriate vocational programme. I suspect the interpretation of these legal provisions by some, may well be the reason many elect to remain in their cells, watching television during the day rather than working and contributing to society.
There must be a way, surely, where those who have offended against society could be given the opportunity to contribute towards government’s project to create conditions for a better life for all our people. Offenders should be able to contribute to the economic and infrastructure development agenda on the basis of government’s key priorities over the next five years.
There have been instances in the past where offenders did do some work. For example: we successfully repaired and upgraded the Department of Social Development’s Secure Care facilities in Kroonstad and Qwa-Qwa using offender labour. Offenders cleaned a peace garden at Portlands High School here in the Western Cape. In Langa offenders cleaned the school for the disabled. Examples are many. It is for this reason that I have expressed to the National Commissioner the need to research this area and develop a national framework to ensure better utilisation of offender labour for the benefit of our communities in the context of rehabilitation, skills development and social reintegration as envisaged in the Correctional Services Act. That research must include consultation across the board to accommodate views from as many stakeholders as possible.
I want at this stage, Speaker, to focus a bit on the matter of medical care for offenders. We all know of the strain that our department of health faces in this regard. The DCS is not immune to these challenges as we struggle to attract medical professionals to our department. The unfortunate reality is that we still have persons with psychiatric difficulties and disabilities in our facilities who share communal cells with the rest of the inmate population. Women and children in our facilities also require a particular degree of medical attention. I raised these matters when I met recently with some member of the South African Medical Association (SAMA). Those discussions were useful and insightful. The meeting with SAMA was influenced by our commitment to maintain certain minimum standards of care that flow from the obligations prescribed by our law on the question. One of the prerequisites to implement our programme of minimum care to the inmates is to design a creative way to attract medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, psychologists, social workers and other relevant professionals to serve in our facilities. As I stated earlier, we trust that the OSD will go a long way to address this matter.
The application of Section 79 of the Correctional Services Act has been the subject of some controversy for the past year. The heading of this section in the act which reads as follows: “Correctional Supervision or Parole on Medical Grounds” is in fact misleading as this section is limited to an offender who has been diagnosed as being in the final phases of any terminal disease or condition to die a consolatory and dignified death. I have requested the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board, through its Chairperson, Judge Desai, to review the application of this section and to make proposals to me with regard to medical parole in a much broader sense. This task will include the setting of guidelines for the application of the legislation as it stands in order to ensure a degree of consistency. For instance, it may well be advisable to appoint medical professionals to advise the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board in these matters.
We hope that the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) will assist in setting acceptable standards for determination of the terminal stage for illnesses.
Our parole system is not a wanton licence to freedom and neither does it nullify the actual sentence imposed by the courts. The parole system aims to extend and grant opportunities for second chances. We hope that as parole is considered, particular attention is paid to the matter of victims of crime, especially victims of violent crimes like murder, robbery and all forms of crimes against women and children. Similarly, offenders who commit further crimes whilst in custody must not expect any sympathy from our parole system. The current proposed Incarceration Framework, whilst setting general minimum detention standards for all offenders, will particularly prescribe a stricter regime for this category including victim involvement in cases of violent crime offenders. This does not mean that victims have a final say but their voice is critical for paroling.
A matter I want to address and contextualise is that of overcrowding in our Correctional Centres. By December of the 2008/09 financial year, 64 870 ATDs had been diverted from our system. 49 072 offenders had also benefited from our parole and conversion processes. In spite of these measures the number of ATDs continues to increase primarily due to the fact that 77% of ATDs do not have bail and cannot benefit from these alternatives. The other contributing factor is that there is an increasing number of offenders serving sentences in excess of 10 years (especially the 10-15 year bracket). This is also worsened by an increase of people serving lifelong sentences in our facilities. The effect of these realities is that we experience a significant burden on our ability to manage overcrowding. We are currently exploring the introduction of electronic monitoring for parole and correctional supervision as a possible solution and will be considering the business case for this later.
The Judicial Inspecting Judge, in his interaction with me, has passionately raised the matter of overcrowding in the context of a criminal justice system under lots of strain and the impact this has on the Department. The Department will soon be submitting a proposal of an Awaiting Trial Detention Branch in the DCS as per Cabinet directive.
Speaker, I recently signed what is commonly referred to as the Bail Protocol, together with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Minister of Police. The primary objective of this agreement – as partners in the Criminal Justice System - is to ensure that those inmates who are in our facilities for petty crimes and failure to afford bail are diverted through alternative programmes. This is a big step in ensuring that the justice system is not seen as mainly favouring the rich while confining the poor to a life in our Corrections for the mere reason that they could not afford bail. This question speaks directly to the challenges of the Criminal Justice System that the JCPS needs to be ceased to – especially the Department of Justice.
We must not lose sight of basic service delivery principles as prescribed by the Batho Pele ethos of Government. We cannot talk about Batho Pele without dealing with discipline, professionalism and countering corruption. I will be holding the department to account on the issue of discipline in the workplace. It is for this reason that we cannot compromise on the need for a professional cadre of the DCS that truly “serves” the people. There are too many instances where family members visit their loved ones only to turn back at the end of the day without having accomplished this, having been frustrated by the Corrections bureaucracy. I am aware of the frustration many of our people are subjected to at Johannesburg Medium B, for example. Let me congratulate our Krugersdop Centre, which has developed such a high sense of ubuntu in dealing with people.
The Centre has developed this to a fine art and theirs is branded as a ‘best practice model’ of the DCS. We will ensure that this “best practice” is rolled out to other Centres across the country.
Still on the matter of the service we provide and our facilities; the provision of safe, secure and humane correctional facilities is a fundamental responsibility of the DCS. It is for this reason we must continue to place a high premium on the prevention of escapes, assaults and unnatural deaths by ensuring the best possible security measures for the protection of all officers, inmates, service providers and other stakeholders. In order to ensure this, we have already recruited 504 Control Room officers who are currently undergoing training at our Kroonstad College. I will be the first to agree, Honourable members, that it would be big mistake to think that the provision of proper security at our facilities is the “Alpha and Omega” of the corrections function.
Please remember, though, that the reputation of the department was hugely damaged by the escape of Mathe and Farouk, to mention just those two. The inability to secure the Corrections facilities is an indictment against a department that is supposed to keep those who have erred against society in terms of the sentences meted against them by the relevant courts. When this is not done, it amounts to a betrayal of the trust that our people have in our institutions of government. Over the past few years there has been a steady reduction of these escapes and in the last year there were 63 escapes nationally compared to 82 escapes in 2007/08. I hope you agree with me that one escape is one escape too many.
Speaker, the department has committed that there will be several new and renovated facilities opened in this Financial Year. In his speech to this House in mid-2008, my predecessor promised to deliver on the Kimberley Correctional Centre. Unfortunately this delivery was hampered by certain hurdles. The Department has assured me that the Kimberley Correctional Centre will be finalised and opened for utilisation before the end of this year. I have been interacting with my counterpart, the Honourable Minister of Public Works, Minister Doidge, to ensure that this indeed happens.
On this note, Honourable members, you will also recall that there is a process of building additional PPP facilities over and above the two existing ones in Mangaung and Makhado. The procurement processes for these facilities were initiated in 2007. We will finalise these matters as soon as possible. I must state, however, that I will also be looking at the whole philosophy of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for Correctional facilities going into the future. There is a need to engage critically with the trade-offs that come with PPPs and the responsibilities of the state in terms of the spirit of the White Paper.
The task of Corrections is by no means a simple one nor a challenge for the faint hearted. You will recall the axiom that the soul of a people is reflected by how it treats not only its most vulnerable but also those that have wronged it.
As we gather here on the 33rd anniversary of the June 16 Soweto Uprisings, we must, as the DCS state that more needs to be done and can be done to address the high numbers of youth found at our facilities. Youth are indeed very vulnerable and many find themselves sucked into a life of crime easily as they contend with a range of issues and challenges facing them in our communities – these challenges range from substance abuse to serious crimes.
A matter of special concern for inmates – especially youth, is the constant threat of being sucked into gang life, especially in the Western Cape, deserves particular mention. In many respects gangs have become a parallel bureaucracy fuelled by an insidious relationship between corrupt officers and offenders with the lifeline provided by a willing community network in the process of smuggling contraband and creating its own forms of “justice”. The gangs in our facilities are a bureaucracy with its own monopoly of power and are an extension and reflection of the gangs in our communities. It is these gangs that often turn young offenders into hardened criminals by the time they leave our facilities.
As a department we are in a better position to understand the rallying call “Together we can do more”. Indeed, we fully understand when the President says: “As part of building a responsive, interactive and effective government, we must strengthen our partnerships with society.” Part of our interaction with society is to build those partnerships and have long-term relations with various civil society, community based and faith based organisations, as well as the business sector. Some of these have relations that span years. Some of them have invested Millions of Rand in partnership programmes with the Department. I must mention in this regard the Phaphama Alternative to Violence Programme and the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO). There are many others worth mentioning but the list would then be too long for our purpose today.
We also remain committed to regional partnerships in the Continent of Africa and beyond, in keeping with the President’s observation that “working with Africa and the rest of the world, we would pursue African advancement and enhanced international co-operation.
Speaker, the budget that I am putting before this House for adoption is expected to grow at an average nominal rate of 13,6% from R12,3 billion in 2008/09 to R18,1 billion in 2011/12 (at a nominal average growth rate of 13,6%). The implementation of the seven day establishment allocation for the MTEF is R300 million in each year. Inflation-related adjustments on compensation of R1,245 billion over the MTEF. Capital contribution to PPP correctional facilities of R2,9 billion in 2011/12 towards the five new correctional facilities that will provide 15 000 additional bed spaces by 2011/12.
The history of the Department is unpleasant as all of us know. Rewriting that history will require input from all of us in this House and beyond Parliament’s walls. Quoting from the President’s speech once more, let me say: “We also want to work with all political parties, all sectors and all our public servants to build a government that is responsive, interactive and effective” and if we work together “we shall do more to meet our mandate”.
I must, as I conclude, express my appreciation for the good co-operation I have had from the Judges Van Zyl and Desai. I will work towards strengthening these ties and I must state that some of the issues we have raised here are as a result of the insight they provided me in our initial interactions when I started in this position. I also thank the Deputy Minister and the Portfolio Committee for their counsel.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
30 June 2009
