National Task Team restores secure, safe and orderly custody in KwaZulu-Natal
National Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Mr. Zach Modise, has commended the department’s National Task Team (NTT) for restoring secure, safe and orderly custody at the Westville and Pietermaritzburg Correctional Centres in KwaZulu-Natal.
Following other successful operations in various parts of the country, including St. Albans in the Eastern Cape and Mangaung in the Free State/Northern Cape region, the 120-member NTT, comprising correctional officials from across South Africa, commenced operations in KwaZulu-Natal on 3 February 2016.
At the Durban Medium-A centre, based on an assessment, the team implemented an action plan conducting daily surprise search, and seizure, operations. Twelve (10 ton) trucks were used to remove various items, including old mattresses, hundreds of plastic buckets, boxes, planks, old blankets, private clothes, private shoes, rotten food and bread, old containers and bowls, bottles, uniform, old broken appliances, broken pieces of metal, light fittings and shoes. In addition, items confiscated included 411 cell phones, 404 batteries, 141 chargers, 482 sim cards, 133 ear pieces, dagga, 68 mandrax tablets, whoonga, 16 knives, 118 sharpened weapons, cash, bank cards, foreign currency, cigarettes, jewellery, hair cutting machines, memory sticks and padlocks.
As part of the operation, two correctional officials have also been suspended, pending an investigation, for conspiring with inmates to smuggle cell phones. The NTT has also been working daily from 5am until lockup to ensure that no stabbings, and other unlawful incidents, take place, and are assisting Durban Medium-A officials to better manage the centre.
Commissioner Modise has applauded the NTT for their diligence and commitment. “Members of the DCS National Task Team must be commended for their diligence, and commitment, in restoring secure, safe and orderly custody at various correctional centres across South Africa. A comprehensive security strategy is a prerequisite for correction and rehabilitation. The balance between security, control and justice is the responsibility of all correctional managers. Given the restrictive nature of the correctional centre environment, the security controls in a correctional centre have to be tight. Procedural security measures such as regular patrols, frequent searches of cells and offenders, control over objects sent into correctional centres, and even under certain circumstances searches of visitors, must be very clearly regulated, and the procedures must spell out the circumstances in which such procedures are to be followed and the manner in which they are to be conducted.
“The training of correctional officials in methods of searching physical spaces where individuals live, work or congregate, and searching of the individuals themselves, must aim to ensure the ability to detect and prevent an escape attempt or the hiding of contraband, while, at the same time, respecting the dignity of the inmate. Excessive security and control at the expense of justice, such as oppressive security measures which exclude rehabilitative programmes, brutal methods of control, lack of justice in disciplinary hearings and unlawful punishments, can lead to situations in which orderly and fair management gives way to abuse of power, violence by both offenders and officials, the possibility of escapes and the absence of constructive activities for inmates. The rehabilitation of offenders and secure, safe and orderly custody are two sides of the same coin. As part of our human rights culture, both rehabilitation and security must be conducted in an environment in which the human dignity and rights of offenders are respected,” Commissioner Modise said.
Yesterday (25 February 2016), at the Boksburg Correctional Centre in Gauteng, correctional officials also confiscated cellphones, dangerous weapons and drugs during an early morning search operation.
Enquiries:
Logan Maistry
Cell: 083 6444 050
