1 JULY 2024
Greetings to the House Chairperson
Members of the executive – Minister and Deputy Minister
The National Commissioner
Inspecting Judge – Judge Cameron
Honourable Members
I stand to affirm that the ANC supports this budget allocation that has been tabled for the 25/26 financial year as per the circumstances outlined by my Comrade Honorable Ramolobeng. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that the budget is in line with our policy priorities and we support on the basis of continuity and change.
1.Incarceration and security
Though we welcome the relatively low numbers of prison escapes across the country, we need to emphasize on the need of ensuring maximum security in all correctional facilities. Security measures are essential to prevent escapes, smuggling of contrabands and other security breaches that could potentially endanger officials, inmates and the public. In a number of our oversight visits across the centers, we have noted a number of contrabands including drugs, cellphones, money which have illegally made their way into the correctional centers. Correctional centers are places of rehabilitation and contrabands act contrary to that process of rehabilitation.
It has also been our observation that the areas where some of the centers are located, make it easier for the smuggling in of contrabands. It is indeed common knowledge that the department is having a challenge with parameter fencing around the facility to close off the facility from smuggling. The other concern has been on the use of security systems and scanners to detect contrabands from visitors and officials coming into the correctional facilities.
As we face unprecedented levels of overcrowding in our facilities, we welcome the filling of vacancies in correctional supervision boards and we trust that this will help alleviate the problem and no offender will be unreasonably denied parole due to the departmental deficiencies.
As the Correctional Supervision Boards commence with their work, we want to further emphasize on victim participation in correctional appeals to prevent retraumatizing victims when they meet the perpetrators out on parole.
2. Care
We welcome the departments treatment and management of communicable diseases in the correctional facilities. Our oversight visits have indeed demonstrated that health care and treatment tracking and tracing is taken very seriously in the centers. We also welcome the use of offender labour to help build clinics and pharmacies in some of the centers. The availability and access to medicine is of critical importance in ensuring the provision of comprehensive primary health care services to the inmates.
We remain concerned with the shortage and number of skilled professionals such as social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who can facilitate rehabilitation programmes for the inmates. The ration is currently standing at 1;240 which means one social worker/ health care practitioner is responsible for overseeing 240 inmates. This is without a doubt a recipe for disaster.
We wish to see a fully-fledged correctional center, adequately resourced with staff and skilled personnel who are able to bring meaningful counselling and rehabilitation services to the inmates.
We remain shocked at the number of natural and unnatural death recorded in correctional facilities every quarter. The high numbers and vague explanations evoke a memory of a poem by Chris Van Wyk called “In detention”
“He fell from the ninth floor…”
“He hanged himself….”
“He slipped on a piece of soap while washing….”
“He hanged himself…..”
Those were the brutal and vague excuses that the police and correctional officers gave during apartheid when accounting for the deaths of prisoners. Vague and insincere.
We condemn any acts of violence taking place in correctional facilities. We were deeply disappointed to learn about the inmate’s death at Mangaung correctional facility that was framed a natural death until further investigation where it became apparent that some correctional officials were actually involved in the killing of this inmate. “He died from Asthma” they reported until a postmortem report revealed that he was pepper sprayed to death. The state is responsible for the inmate’s safe custody and there can never be any excuse for torture and excessive use of force. I wish to reiterate that Prisoners rights are full human rights, indivisible and inalienable.
3. Rehabilitation and social integration and second chances
The former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan once held that “No one is born a good citizen and no nation is born a democracy.. rather both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth serves its lifeline.” – this goes hand in hand with the English proverb that “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.’’ This simply means that when individuals feel rejected or excluded, they are more likely to resort to destructive behaviour in an attempt to get attention or a sense of belonging. This highlights the importance of community support and need for social reintegration and rehabilitation.
We note that the rehabilitation program is the second smallest allocated program in terms of the budget and comprises of only 8% of the total budget. For the 2025/26 financial year, the program has been allocated R2.2 billion which is 3.93% more than the allocation of the previous year’s allocation.
We congratulate the department on trying to offer diverse programs aimed at providing inmates with second chances. We note the 96% matric pass rate in the 2024/25 year and are confident that the department will continue in that manner. People in correctional facilities must be given second chances to learn and self-correct and acquire skills that will be able to engage them meaningfully in the economy.
Though there are various programs available, we are concerned with the actual number of offenders participating in these programs vs the total inmate population. We urge the Department of correctional services to encourage greater participation in the rehabilitation programs and make use of their partnerships to offer rehabilitative programs to offenders.
Noting the relatively high numbers of overcrowding particularly in the 3rd and 4th quarter – we are now forced to look into alternative sentencing arrangements including community corrections.
We welcome the expansion and diversification of community corrections system. The reintegration of offenders under the system of community corrections provides offenders with an opportunity to lead a socially responsible life within their communities. Since the advent of democracy, community corrections has become a core component of the criminal justice system as it provides a useful alternative to incarceration. Community correctios is a much-needed shift in focus from sanction and deterrence to rehabilitation and reintegration and we must encourage more of these non-custodial sentencing arrangements.
4. Conclusion
The ANC supports this budget vote, thank you.