12 May 2026, GHC

Speaker 2

Ensuring clean governance, public control and institutional capacity in correctional services

Honourable Mogodu Samuel Moela

4 Minutes

Modulasetulo wa Ntlo,

Mohlomphegi Tona, Ntate Groenevald

Motlatsatona, Mme Ntshalintshali

Maloko a Mohlomphegi a Palamente,

Molaodi wa modiredi wa di kgolegole Ntate Thubakgale

le batho ka moka  ba Afrika Borwa ka kakaretšo, ke le dumedisha ka tlhompho.

Bahlomphegi,  while the ANC supports Budget Vote 22, on financial governance we, urge the Department to intensify its efforts to reduce irregular expenditure and strengthen accountability mechanisms across all levels of administration. Public funds must be managed with discipline and precision. Every instance of irregular or wasteful expenditure weakens the Department’s ability to deliver on its constitutional mandate and erodes public confidence in the correctional system. Strengthening consequence management, procurement oversight and internal controls must therefore remain a priority.

The Core correctional functions includes  incarceration and offender management  this must remain firmly under effective public oversight. These are sovereign responsibilities of the state and cannot be diluted without affecting accountability and constitutional compliance. In this regard, the ANC welcomes the allocation and reprioritisation of approximately R2.8 billion towards the phased taking over and reintegration of privately managed correctional centres, Kutama Sinthumule and Mangaung Correctional Centres, back into state management. This is a significant step which strengthens accountability, restores direct public oversight, enhances state capacity and reinforces public confidence that correctional services are ultimately a public responsibility exercised in the public interest.

on institutional capacity and the Departments funding priorities. It is important to highlight that a significant portion of the Department’s budget, approximately 70% — is allocated to administration in the form of compensation of employees. Given the labourintensive nature of Correctional Services, we support this allocation. The Department depends on correctional officers, social workers, psychologists, nurses and administrative personnel to fulfil its mandate effectively. This is not expenditure without purpose; it is the human backbone of the system. In the middle of all these structural problems are the workers  who hold the line every single day – the men and women in brown uniform, working in dangerous and very stressful conditions, who keep our correctional centres functional. Some will criticise this as a cost; the ANC sees it as an investment. You cannot talk about safe and rehabilitative facilities if the frontline officials are underpaid, understaffed and unsupported.

We must recognise their sacrifices, but recognition alone is not enough. We insist that this Budget is used to strengthen training, support staff wellness and protect whistleblowers who expose corruption. A demoralised, overstretched official is a vulnerability in the system, while an empowered, welltrained and respected official is one of the strongest safeguards we have.

However, Honourable Members, we must also strongly condemn the persistence of critical vacancies both within the Department and in its oversight entity, JICS. In a country facing a crisis of unemployment, it is simply unacceptable that funded posts remain unfilled while correctional centres are understaffed, and oversight institutions are weakened.

As the ANC, we support this Budget on the explicit understanding that the Department must move with urgency to fill these vacancies, prioritising capacity at the coalface and in JICS so that both service delivery and independent oversight are strengthened.

Kea leboga.