Correctional Centres to assist youth not in custody
More than 3000 people from Richards Bay, and surrounding areas, in KwaZulu-Natal attended South Africa’s first Correctional Youth Summit today (19 March 2016) at the uMzuvukile Sports Ground in eNseleni Township.
The summit, hosted by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Adv. Michael Masutha, in partnership with the City of uMhlatuze, marked the start of a series of similar summits to be hosted across the country to advance youth empowerment through corrections.
The summit is intended to explore ways of keeping young people away from crime and offending behaviour, by tapping into local developmental opportunities through collaborative programmes between the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), municipalities, other government departments, the private sector and civil society.
Through this initiative, Minister Masutha is engaging directly with young people especially those at risk of ending up in correctional facilities due to poverty, unemployment and lack of economic emancipation.
The Minister is encouraging young people, who make up the largest segment of the inmate/offender population, to resist the temptation of crime and being incarcerated, and to partner with DCS to explore innovative ways of utilising the resources available at South Africa’s 243 correctional facilities to advance a local developmental agenda.
Addressing the summit in eNseleni today (19 March), Minister Masutha said: The year 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, which continues to remind us of the sacrifices made by the youth of 1976. They laid down their lives, so that you and I can enjoy the freedom we enjoy today. We look upon the bravery of the 1976 young lions as an inspiration to the youth of today to work hard and contribute in finding solutions to many challenges that confront us.
“Statistics South Africa reports indicate that South Africa is a youthful country. The majority of our population is young. The youth (14-35years) constitute 41.2% (20.5 million) of our total population.
When we look at the demographics, and include children between the ages of 1-13 years in the equation, then 77.6% of the South African population is between 1-34 years old. If we are to look at these figures as a challenge, this will mean, as government, civil society and the private sector, we have to redouble our collective efforts to ensure that our future leaders are sufficiently empowered to approach the future with confidence. Similarly, we must challenge the youth to take advantage of the opportunities created by our democracy in order to create a better life for themselves and their families.
“However, one may ask, Minister… what opportunities are you referring to when about 25.2% of South Africans are unemployed? Out of these unemployed South Africans, the percentage contribution of unemployed people who are aged 15 to 35 (youth in other words) is about 72 percent. This is a depressing reality that calls for creative initiatives in order to turn things around. It is therefore undisputed that young people deserve a bigger share of development investments.
Hence, addressing youth issues should remain salient for all of us. Allow me to cite the United Nations General-Secretary who, while visiting our continent this month, said we ‘must do much much more’ to address what he termed the ‘forgotten crisis’ of youth unemployment, underdevelopment, poverty, inequality and absence of hope for a better future.
This is what the vulnerable sectors of our population, especially youth, find themselves in. When you create an enabling environment that creates opportunities for the youth to prosper, you are guaranteed energy, optimism and vibrancy among the youth and across our nation. Yet, a failure to invest in these opportunities can quickly lead to the opposite - to alienation and to energy turned in destructive, rather than constructive, directions. That is a future we invite at our peril.
“We now see children as young as 17 have committed serious crimes ranging from murder, rape and theft. This should make society question where we have failed in protecting our children. We need to accept that crime reflects the failures in society and is not a direct consequence of the failures of the corrections system.
The correctional system of this country progressively invests in the development of the youth currently in its care. However, we can find peace, stability and a higher sense of public safety only when we align our interventions to address the vulnerable youth at risk of committing crimes. We are, therefore, gathered here to say our correctional centres also do have a responsibility to look after the communities and youth outside our correctional centres.
“Indeed, it is true when we say lack of education, and adequate skills to penetrate the job market or lack of opportunities for the unskilled to start businesses, often forces some to engage in criminal activity to provide for needy families. We are therefore here as Correctional Services to say we want to advance youth development and prevent crime through the utilization of our correctional centres.
There is nothing stopping us from using offender labour to intervene in local communities and to build a better life for young people. We have 243 correctional centres in the country, which offer a wide range of developmental activities and opportunities. Through external partnerships, we can double the impact we are currently making and get big numbers of youth to benefit from our technical and vocational training centres and in agricultural projects. Local communities are an important stakeholder that should work hand-in-hand with our centres.
“Moses Kotane once said: ‘At this hour of destiny, your country and your people need you. The future of South Africa is in your hands and it will be what you make of it’. When expressing these sentiments, Moses Kotane was speaking on a different platform and in a different epoch. However, his sentiments are still relevant today as they point to the role that the youth of our country have to play in society. Together, through what we do practically, we must communicate the message to the youth of our country that we mean it when we say the future belongs to them. This must be a better future of hope and not a future of despair. For you to be a force for progressive change and radical transformation, we want to empower you as Correctional Services so that you can play your meaningful role - that of being change agents.
“I can never overemphasise the importance of collective effort if we are serious about addressing the socio-economic challenges. It is for this reason that we have brought a number of stakeholders on board and we shall continue to look for more partners. However, for this to happen, we require the community and our youth to play their part. Partnership is key. We must all play our role in terms of driving youth entrepreneurship and youth cooperatives towards holistic and integrated business development.
Working in partnership with all stakeholders, including youth enterpreneurs, we will begin to develop a plethora of programmes, both financial and non-financial, to assist our youth enterprises, and thus create opportunities for job creation to reduce crime and youth unemployment.Today we are making a steady advance towards the country of our dreams.
This occasion is just the beginning of a long programme which I believe will add strength to our efforts to change. Seize the opportunities available to you so that you can take your place as tomorrow`s leaders in re-building our society,” Minister Masutha said.
In closing Minister Masutha paid tribute to Metro FM Award Winner Nathi Mankayi, a mucisian from the Eastern Cape Province, who is a product of DCS rehabilitation programs. "As we roll out a series of Correctional
Youth Summits we are inspired by how he turned his life around after leaving our centre."
Enquiries:
Adv. Mthunzi Mhaga
Cell: 083 641 8141
