Minister Masutha calls on youth to take responsibility for their development
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has urged young people to take responsibility and "make something out of nothing with their lives". Minister Masutha was addressing over 3 000 people at a Correctional Youth Imbizo held at the Toekomsrus Stadium in Randfontein today, 18 June 2016.
He said government has progressively invested in the development of young people, including those in communities and those in conflict with the law in order to enhance their quality of life and enhance their resilience against crime. He said the Department of Correctional Services is empowering offenders with life and technical skills to improve their prospects of leading productive lives free of crime when they are eligible for placement back into their communities.
Minister Masutha also said: “We had made a commitment to divert children from prisons, meaning those between 14 and 18 years of age, and we achieved phenomenally in this regard with a 93% reduction of children in custody. Currently, there are 610 juvenile remand detainees, meaning youth between 18 – 20 years of age, with about 596 sentenced juveniles in our care.
However the fact that nearly 70% of the country’s 157 000 inmate population are young people, is a disturbing feature we must all address.”
“Compounding our challenge is the fact that many young people have committed serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and assault. Many come from previously disadvantaged communities with lack of employment opportunities and are living in abject poverty from dysfunctional families. Of course this should not be used as a justification for crime, but we have an obligation to limit chances of these sectors being used by crime syndicates or themselves using crime as an alternative”, said Minister Masutha.
The Minister’s Randfontein Youth Imbizo is the third leg of a national programme run in collaboration with Municipalities and other stakeholder, that is aimed at integrating efforts to, not only deral with offenders in custody, but young people at risk in surrounding communities.
Minsiter Masutha said there is commendable progress in dealing with offenders through eleven correctional programmes aimed at addressing criminogenic factors behind crime, as well as offender educations and skills development programmes that are aimed at increasing their chances of leading productive lives on their release.
The Minister’s correctional outreach programme entails the identification of unemployed youth, from communities surrounding correctional centres, bring them into correctional centres over a period of time to be trained with offenders in, among others, motor mechanics, furniture making, electrical engineering, business management as well as agriculture and food production.
Enquiries:
Mthunzi Mhaga
Cell: 083 641 8141
