Programme Director
Honourable Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Ngoako Ramatlhodi
Chief Deputy Commissioner for Corrections, Mr Zach Modise
Regional Commissioner James Smalberger
Distinguished guests
Managers and officials of Correctional Services
Offenders here present
Ladies and gentlemen
It is my pleasure to welcome everyone of you to this last of ten public hearings held nationally to solicit public and stakeholders oral submissions of names for the renaming of eleven facilities identified by Minister Mapisa-Nqakula in January 2011.
It has been a fulfilling experience that empowered us to properly advise the Deputy Minister and the Minister. People’s views, feelings, aspirations and fears expressed during the series of hearings have empowered us greatly, and I am sure today’s gathering would be as vibrant and engaging as the rest of the hearings, if not even better.
You have travelled long distances and sacrificed many important engagements you had today just to make your mark as the history of prisons continues to evolve in South Africa. The significance of your participation is that it epitomises what the Minister expects as an outcome of the current campaign of renaming correctional centres.
The overriding question that needs to occupy every one’s mind is – how can we make corrections a truly people’s correctional system. Now is the time for your effective participation in speeding Correctional Services transformation strategy and also in building stronger social cohesion that is pivotal if we are to succeed in preventing crime.
Deputy Minister, we are truly grateful for your presence to deliver the main address that will help to give appropriate perspective to the issue of renaming of Correctional Centres.
The choice of Mitchels Plain for such an important gathering of Correctional Services is itself a celebration of the contribution this community of over 1.5 million people made in the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa. We all know the sacrifices made by many of your community leaders from the 1970s and also know the social ills like drug abuse and crime which have taken a centre stage in this community. We share a common vision of safer and secure communities who help to prevent crime, improve rehabilitation and effectively re-integrate offenders back into society.
To scores of stakeholder representatives that turn up in numbers to contribute to this campaign, we wish to say, we are humbled by your presence and your eagerness.
I trust that the inputs and deliberations of this day will leave us wiser to be able to execute our primary responsibilities with commitment to excellence. We have been emphasizing that success is definite and failure is not an option.
I am looking forward to a really productive engagement during these public hearings. We claim no special wisdom to determine where should correctional services go, but lay claim to our collective wisdom, because together we can do more to break the cycle of crime.
