12 May 2026, GHC

Speaker 1

Advancing a Safe, Rehabilitative and Developmental Correctional System in Defence of Constitutional Democracy and Public Safety

Honourable Kgomotso Anthea Ramolobeng

12 Minutes

House Chairperson,

Minister Groenewald,

Deputy Minister Ntshalintshali,

Honourable Members,

National Commissioner

and to the hardworking men and women in brown uniform – as the African National Congress, we see you, we appreciate your service, and we honour the difficult work you do every day inside our correctional centres.

To the people of South Africa watching this debate, whether from your homes, your workplaces or even from behind the walls of our facilities, this debate is about you, your safety, and the kind of society we are building 30 years into constitutional democracy.

The Department of Correctional Services Annual Performance Plans for this MTEF period are clear: they place rehabilitation, safe custody and social reintegration at the centre of its work and as the African National Congress, we support Budget Vote 22 and welcome the continued increases across the departmental programmes as a necessary investment in safer and more rehabilitative correctional centres. We do not support this Budget because everything is perfect inside our correctional centres – far from it. We support it because we understand that if we abandon this Budget, we abandon the project of building a correctional system that is developmental, constitutional and humane.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is very clear. It protects equality in section 9, dignity in section 10, freedom and security of the person in section 12, and the rights of arrested, detained and accused persons in section 35. Section 35 more specifically says that detained people, including sentenced prisoners, must be held under conditions consistent with human dignity, with adequate accommodation, nutrition, reading material, exercise and medical treatment. Those are not favours; they are constitutional instructions to this House and to the executive.

As we debate this Budget, we are not just speaking about line items; we are debating about whether our state is willing to fund its own legal and constitutional obligations.

House Chair,

We must be honest with our people about the reality of contraband, illegal cellphones, drugs and organised gang networks that operate from inside some of our facilities. We cannot speak about rehabilitation while someone is still running a criminal enterprise from inside a cell using a smartphone and a TikTok account. So, this Budget must translate into tighter security measures, better intelligence, stronger internal investigations and real consequences for any official or inmate who keeps these underground networks alive.

Honourable Members,

Any honest debate about corrections must confront the crisis of overcrowding and the large number of remand detainees. Overcrowding is not only a problem of numbers; it is a human problem. When you pack human beings like sardines into facilities that were never designed for those numbers, you put pressure on infrastructure, you make rehabilitation programmes almost impossible to deliver, and you compromise the safety of both inmates and officials.

Remand detainees – many of whom are still awaiting trial, some for minor offences – end up stuck in conditions that harden them instead of allowing for justice to take its course fairly and speedily. The White Paper on Remand Detention Management reminds us that remand detention is not punishment; those detainees are still presumed innocent and are held only to ensure they appear in court. But when the system is slow, when cases drag, when bail decisions are inconsistent, those people end up stuck for long periods in conditions that fuel frustration, violence and further criminalisation. That is why stronger coordination across the criminal justice cluster is nonnegotiable: our police, prosecutors, the courts and correctional services must act like one system, not four separate empires.

Honourable Members,

Legislative reform is another critical pillar. We can’t manage 21stcentury correctional challenges with outdated legal frameworks. We need to move with speed on issues relating to state patients and the broader management of detainees within the criminal justice system. The current gaps and bottlenecks lead to people remaining in correctional facilities when they should be in appropriate mental health facilities and when alternative care arrangements should be in place. This is unfair to them, it is unfair to other inmates, unlawful and it places unnecessary strain on already limited correctional resources. Updating and aligning legislation and practice is essential if the system is to respect both human rights and the efficient use of limited resources.

At the centre of all these interventions is a simple but powerful principle: rehabilitation must remain the core of correctional services, not an addon. If rehabilitation becomes a “nice to have” that gets cut when budgets are tight, then we would have given up on the idea that people can change. That is why the ANC continues to support programmes focused on offender rehabilitation, education, vocational training and social reintegration. An inmate with a matric, a trade, a skill and a support network is less likely to return to crime than someone who spent years idle in a violent environment. Every workshop, every classroom, every vocational programme inside a correctional centre is an investment in lower crime rates outside that facility in future.

But Honourable members, we must go further, Correctional services must become more productive and selfsufficient. Our centres should be sites of agricultural production, skills development and offender work programmes that reduce costs to the fiscus, provide work experience and contribute to food security. When offenders wake up to a structured day of work, training and education, you disrupt the idle time that feeds gangs and violence. At the same time, you prepare them to reenter the economy with practical skills.

House Chair, building this kind of system requires more than programmes. The National Democratic Revolution has always been about transforming the state and society in favour of human dignity, equality, development and the advancement of the people, and that task must also find expression in the correctional environment. Top leadership appointments, performance management and discipline must reflect this. You cannot credibly fight corruption and gangsterism on the ground if there is weak, compromised leadership at the top.

In this context, the Correctional Services Learnership Programme becomes strategically important. It is not just a training course; it is the pipeline for a new generation of skilled, ethical and peoplecentred public servants in corrections. The DCS must use the 2026/27 budget to strengthen this programme, ensure its quality, and protect it from capture. When young recruits enter the system with a clear value base and proper training, they can become the backbone of a modern, constitutional correctional service.

As we debate this budget, we are reminded of the words of liberation struggle stalwart and lifelong champion of Justice, Oliver Tambo, who understood both the sacrifices made for our freedom and the responsibility of building a society rooted in human dignity, when he said that “a nation that does not take care of its youth has no future”. It is against this backdrop that the African National Congress has been unequivocal on demographic transformation, inclusivity and youth empowerment in the public service, and DCS is no exception. We will not compromise on the principle that the state must reflect the people it serves, especially in leadership and frontline roles. Young people, particularly black, female youth, must find meaningful opportunities for skills development, leadership and employment within correctional services. It is not about ticking affirmative action boxes; it is about harnessing the talents and perspectives we need to build a humane and effective system.

Honourable Members,

Our task as Parliament is not to grandstand while the system collapses, but to provide oversight, push for reforms and support the investments that will make our people and correctional centres safer. The true measure of this budget, therefore, will not only be found in the figures we allocate today but in whether those resources are utilised effectively to strengthen rehabilitation and reintegration programmes, uphold human dignity within our correctional centres and ultimately reduce reoffending in our society.

It is for these reasons, that the ANC supports Budget Vote 22, not as a rubber stamp, but as a commitment to intensify oversight, deepen transformation, and push the entire criminal justice system to live up to the constitutional promise of dignity, equality and justice for all, including those behind the walls.

I, Thank you.