report
19 February 2009
We issue this statement in response to a series of enquiries we received
from the media asking for comments on the handover report of the Portfolio
Committee released earlier this week.
Firstly, we wish to indicate that the portfolio committee report is a
handover report to the next portfolio committee and not a report to
Correctional Services. Nevertheless, we welcome the report of the portfolio
committee which we believe will assist in ensuring that a number of gaps that
they identified are addressed with the new Portfolio Committee.
We have had very productive relations over the term and appreciate the role
of the portfolio committee played in relation to the development and approval
of White Paper and improvement of the regulatory framework for corrections.
The department is acutely aware of the significance of the parliamentary
oversight committees which are a critical leg in broader governmentâs efforts
to sharpen service delivery, to ensure good governance and to promote public
safety.
It is critical to first acknowledge the magnitude of the challenges alluded
to by the portfolio committee in their handover report, which, by the
committeeâs own admission, is multi-year programmes that are very complex in
nature. Indeed the department will remain seized with the implementation of
these programmes for many years to come, but building on what we regard as
great progress made during the last five years. The transformation of the
department as presented to Cabinet is a 15 to 20 year process that needs
intensive and extensive participation of all concerned.
In the following areas we have made strides:
* compliance with good governance principles
* over-crowding
* staff morale
* vacancies
* suspensions and
* investigations
All of these issues are adequately addressed in the Departmentâs strategic
plan and through our risk management processes. At this time the department
wishes to give you an overview of what has been foremost in our efforts to
transform the department from an institution overwhelmed by inherent challenges
facing prison to one of the best in delivering services with commitment to
excellence.
We have covered a range of areas that we believe should be acknowledged and
appreciated:
1. Non-compliance with good governance has been, and continues to be one of
the top priorities of the Department over the last five years with the
following milestones made to position the Department as a fraud and corruption
fighter.
* The Departmental Investigation Unit (DIU) was established and contributed
significantly in improving conviction rates to around 90% of those taken
through internal disciplinary, and sending a clear and a deterrent signal to
all to change from their wayward ways.
* Co-operation and partnership with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU)
brought great results in terms of numbers of officials disciplined, external
corrupt partners that appeared in courts, millions of rands recovered over the
years and projected savings. We believe the investment we further made in
renewing the SIU contract in 2006 for three years at an average cost of R13
million was worth the effort. They were assigned to investigate all big tenders
including the information technology (IT), nutrition, security and other
contracts. A special joint media conference is planned for reflecting on this
partnership shortly.
* The sustained reduction of areas of qualification by the Auditor General
over the past five years, from six areas four years to one in 2007/08 financial
year demonstrates our resolve to ensure good corporate governance.
2. Security has also improved particularly over the last five years. The
decline of deaths, incidents of violence, gang related incidents and major
reductions in escapes are a result of policy and strategy development as well
as appropriate deployments and motivation of staff to ensure effective
implementation. The highlights include:
* reduction of gang related incidents from 196 in 1996 to 12 in 2008 and
continuing and
* successes in reducing attempted escapes, escapes and security breaches over
five years:
* attempted escapes from 23 in 2004 to 13 in 2008 and
* escapes from 176 in 2004 to 70 in 2008.
3. Overcrowding remains a major challenge for Correctional Services with all
societal and systemic causes. However it is important to acknowledge that a
series of interventions have ensured that offender population remains fairly
constant since 2005 when the special remission of sentence was successfully
implemented. Prior to that, we had exponential increases of up to 23 000
offenders per year.
* Offender population was reduced from 186 4572 in 2004 to 164 000 in 2008,
with a slow increase over the past three years
* The calls for alternative sentencing and for incarceration to be reserved for
those posing serious danger to society are landing on receptive ears across the
criminal justice system as evidenced by the increasing use of alternative
sentencing provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act Section. Between April and
December 2008 alone over 16 000 offenders were sentenced to, among others,
spend only 1/6th of their sentence in custody before placement under
correctional supervision and
* These are welcome developments, but a lot more still needs to be done
considering the expected impact of efficiency gains of the planned review of
the criminal justice system.
4. Filling of vacancies is another critical area we have grappled with. The
departmentâs ambitious target of 7% average vacancy rate, indeed, could not be
met as the department had between nine and 11% average vacancies over the past
year compared to the government wide average of 30%. The efforts to reach our
ambitious target were thwarted by the financial implications of Resolution 1 of
2007 reached in the General Public Services Sectoral Bargaining Council
(GPSSBC) that led to over expenditure and compelled a moratorium on filling of
vacancies during the current financial year with the exemption of scarce skills
and senior management positions.
The moratorium has since been lifted for finance and logistics functions.
Over 340 vacancies were advertised in December 2008 with plans to fill
vacancies by April 2009. Other interventions approved last year to reverse the
loss of scarce skills include:
* recruitment and retention strategy that is being rolled out
* elevation of entry levels for psychologists that experienced 71% vacancies
and medical practitioners who are now recruited at the top notch of level
12
* the vacancy rate must also be understood within a context of increasing the
structure and improving staff complement from 33 000 to 40 000 in just three
years as we are gearing ourselves for the implementation of the Seven-Day
Establishment (7DE).
5. Suspension of officials of the department that threaten or compromise the
security is an appropriate action in cases where the seriousness of the offence
warrants it. We do acknowledge that long-term suspension must be minimised by
all means. It is crucial, though, to appreciate improvements made from 483
suspensions at a cost of R34 million in 2006/07 financial year to only 80 by
December 2008. People have rights and those facing possible dismissal normally
do all in their power to delay or prolong the process and legislation prohibits
unpaid suspension, as all are regarded as innocent until proven guilty.
6. On the investigations of security breaches, the current state of the
cases is as follows:
* Briefings on the Groote Schuur incident that led to an unfortunate death
of an official were done showing that the internal processes were concluded.
One official was dismissed on an unrelated case, another one died before
conclusion of the case, two received strong written warnings, one official was
acquitted and three cases were withdrawn. The criminal investigation is
continuing with South African Police Service (SAPS) leading the process.
* The internal investigation of Annanias Matheâs escape was concluded and 13
officials were subjected to internal disciplinary hearings that are expected to
be finalised in March 2009. Regarding criminal investigations, the National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) led investigation project with the Souyth African
Police Service (SAPS) was also concluded and criminal proceedings against Mathe
are currently underway.
* The Krugersdorp incident of offender deaths was also investigated and
concluded and disciplinary hearings resulted in the dismissal of five
officials. Their criminal case is ongoing.
7. Occupation Specific Dispensation is on course. We expected that current
negotiations with labour at the General Public Services Bargaining Council
(GPCBC) are to be concluded soon. The OSD is intended to ensure full
recognition of corrections as a profession and to provide clear career paths
for officials.
8. Indeed there is a long way to the ideals outlined in the Constitution and
our White Paper on Corrections in South Africa. The department wishes to
express its respect of the oversight role of the portfolio committee, which we
believe is a crucial partner in ensuring improved delivery of correctional
services. The department also believes that the report is going to assist in
preparation for the briefing of the new portfolio committee.
For enquiries contact:
Manelisi Wolela
Cell: 083 626 0304
Tel: 012 305 8205
E-mail: manelisi.wolela@dcs.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
19 February 2009
