Deputy Speaker, hon members, first allow me to once more extend my condolences, and those of government, to the family of our late former Deputy Minister, Comrade Cheryl Gillwald, a former member of the House and a dedicated servant of our people, who served with distinction and selflessness. We fittingly pay tribute to her, particularly at this time when our country observes the national Women's Month. This is in recognition of her role in the struggle for the empowerment of women and her sterling work in the leadership of the campaign for the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. May her soul rest in peace.
We thank the National Assembly, the parties and presiding officers for granting us our request to make a statement in this House relating to the reported incident of violence at our new correctional centre in Kimberley last week. Normally, we would not have brought this matter before the House here, but given some of the media reports relating to the level of severity of the violence, we thought it necessary to set the record straight - provide clarity on the actual events, the response of government and further actions to be taken in this regard. I also wanted to use this opportunity to re-emphasise matters of policy relating to some of the issues that gave rise to dissatisfaction amongst offenders.
I was in China on 30 August when I received a report that some of the inmates in the K11 unit of our Kimberley Correctional Centre were rioting and had taken officials hostage at the centre. This was as a result of complaints they had raised about the fact that they felt that management at centre level was not paying attention to their grievances.
From the preliminary reports that were received, the following were their grievances, and I will deal with the context of each one of these later: Firstly, the main grievance is about transfers and the fact that offenders are far away from their families; secondly, they complain about the provision of medical care; and thirdly, they complain about a shortage of materials provided for development of skills and training.
Before dealing with these issues, let me indicate that about a month prior to this incident, on 29 June, the Deputy Minister, the National Commissioner and I visited the Kimberley Correctional Centre as part of our scheduled visits to regions. During this visit, some of the offenders raised those and other concerns. The concerns were responded to and action has been taken to address some of them.
Firstly, it has to be noted that because it is a new centre, only commissioned in March this year, operations at the Kimberley facility are being implemented through a phased-in approach that is ramping it up to full capacity. Currently the facility has occupancy of 2 543 inmates, and its full capacity is supposed to be 3 000. Most of the offenders have been transferred from other regions to alleviate overcrowding.
Secondly, the facility has been designed and designated as a medium security facility. However, we received reports in June this year that due to overcrowding in some of our larger centres, some of our regions have been transferring some maximum security offenders to this centre, and some of these offenders were being irregularly reclassified.
On the grievances, first starting with the transfers, I have on several occasions indicated that it will not be possible for us to consider applications for transfers based on the reason that an offender is far away from their home and family. If we were to do this, it would make it difficult for us to manage overcrowding in all of our centres.
This does not suggest that the department does not apply a policy of transfers. Such applications are considered on merit, but what we are certainly weary of are situations where the only reason given is that of distance from an offender's family. I have, however, already directed that the department make arrangements to assist families to visit offenders, either on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on the necessary economics and availability of funds.
After our visit we had directed that, in the meantime, telephone booths should be installed in all units of the centre. This has been done, although they have now been damaged, at least in the unit where the rioting took place.
On the issue of medical care, during our visit we had directed that the process of the filling of medical care vacancies be fast-tracked and finalised. At the time of the visit, nine general nursing and 15 clinical posts had already been advertised and were in the process of being finalised.
You have heard that there's a complaint about workshops and the development of skills. Procurement of material for the workshop has also been prioritised and will be delivered to the centre.
Lastly, let me indicate that it is true that during the riots there has been burning of mattresses and other equipment in unit K13. This has resulted in some officials and offenders requiring treatment for smoke inhalation. However, I want to make it clear that no offender or official died during the riots, as has been erroneously reported in the media. Fortunately the riots also coincided with the scheduled visit by the portfolio committee of this department. The situation at the centre returned to normal two hours after the start of the incident and has remained calm ever since. We have, however, continued to monitor the process closely.
I want to take the opportunity and thank members of the portfolio committee for the oversight visit at that critical moment, for their support but also for their refusal to interact with the group of inmates who were involved in leading this rebellion.
I must also report that investigation into the conduct of both offenders and officials continue. Our investigation covers all suspected causes of these incidents, including incitement and collusion. We continue to be faced with serious levels of ill discipline amongst officials, leading to collusion with offenders in the destabilisation of the department. During the past few months we've also shown decisiveness in dealing with cases of ill discipline and flagrant disregard for protocols and procedures. We have dispatched a team from the head office to handle the transfer of more experienced officials from other centres to the Kimberley Correctional Centre, as most of the officials there are still new and directly from the training college.
It is my hope that this account that we have given before the House will clarify the understanding of the members and the South African public about what exactly transpired at the centre. I also want to take the opportunity to thank the correctional officers who have declared, for now, that they will not be part of the strike that is currently going on in the country. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, the riot and hostage drama that played itself out at the new Kimberley Correctional Centre on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - almost costing six young male and female correctional officials their lives - is a textbook illustration of a failed management model. For that the Department of Correctional Services should take full responsibility.
Allow me to point out the fundamental flaws which are a culmination of a mixture of bad planning and a weak and visionless management team at the centre. The original estimated budget, which was R281,5 million in September 2004, was escalated to a phenomenal R824,1 million by February 2010. On top of the escalation in costs to the taxpayer was a 12-month backlog.
As we speak, only 11 of the 12 housing units are fully occupied by offenders. This is so because after the construction of this correctional centre, the Department of Correctional Services had no idea where they would find inmates to fill the facility.
The department then went on a wild hunt to find offenders to fill the centre. A large part of the population came from provinces such as the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng and Free State. This is in direct contradiction with the provisions of the White Paper. Very few inmates are from the Northern Cape and North West provinces. This seems to be a big contributor to the high levels of frustration among inmates, and this was observed by portfolio committee members from both Public Works and Correctional Services during our oversight visit to the centre last week.
In the new centre you will, on the one hand, find inmates who have committed murder, rape and serious assault serving sentences ranging from 20 years to three life sentences and, on the other hand, inmates serving very short sentences such as two to five years. Yet all of them are located in the same centre and mixed together in the same units. I can understand what the Minister is saying about the wrongful reclassification of maximum security inmates.
No one can tell you whether the centre is a medium-classified centre or a maximum centre. Some inmates who were hurriedly reclassified to medium- offender status have no clue as to what their security classification is. Most of the inmates reported that they are locked up for 23 hours a day. On certain days they are not afforded the right to one hour of exercise. The lack of rehabilitation and education programmes is compounded by the fact that very few inmates are involved in prison labour. This increases the space for them to get involved in gangsterism and illegal activities.
An effective complaints mechanism that records inmates' complaints and provide proper feedback to them will go a long way in lessening the frustration of inmates at this centre. The above also explains why, in the last six months, expensive and state-of-the-art kitchen and laundry equipment was deliberately damaged by inmates - obliterating the valid warranties relating to them. This gives you an indication of systemic problems at this prison.
Eighty percent of the officials appointed at the centre have less than two years' experience in offender management. Yet the centre houses seasoned inmates with very long sentences. This is worrying. This is a recipe for disaster, as most of these young men and women can so easily be manipulated by these experienced convicted criminals.
One can thus clearly see that bad planning plus poor management and inexperienced staff, as well as hardened and convicted criminals, are a recipe for disaster. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Madam Speaker, we have two very serious problems in our country. Firstly, as the chairperson of the portfolio committee has correctly pointed out, there is a serious lack of capacity and competency on the part of the Department of Correctional Services staff at the new Kimberley correctional facility. As elsewhere in the Public Service, incompetency becomes the mother of all problems and destructive behaviour.
To us in Cope, it is very clear that we need to look at the incompetency of staff as the starting point of the unacceptable behaviour of inmates. Lack of respect for officials set into motion a whole chain of unfortunate and even tragic actions and reactions. The Minister and the department must seriously address this incompetency problem as a principle problem. The portfolio committee accepts that it is so, and so does everyone else.
The second problem relates to a widespread culture of vandalism that prevails in the South African society. Wherever there are protests - legitimate protests - they degenerate into wanton vandalism. It is not only with the inmates at Kimberley; it is a South African phenomenon.
While there seems to be an acceptance that inmates were frustrated, the holding of six officials as hostages and the burning of some of the units at the new facility on Tuesday afternoon are totally unacceptable. Government has to actively solicit the support of all communities to ensure that this culture of vandalism, lawlessness and hooliganism end.
An assurance from government that it has the capacity to listen to people's grievances and act on them will go a long way in curbing this behaviour. Thank you. [Time expired.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, this sad incident only occurred a few days ago and it is, therefore, too soon to take a final stand on this. But serious allegations such as those contained in the speech made by the hon Fritz, the complaints which were apparently ignored, transfers away from families, medical treatment and - as the Minister admitted - the very serious levels of ill discipline amongst the officials, are alarming. I'm glad that the Minister has played open cards and told us these things.
Therefore, in our view, we think it's best to await the report of the investigators before we take a final stand on this. But I think the Minister should, when the opportunity comes, reply to the various serious allegations by my colleague Mr Fritz.
Adjunkspeaker, ons is nou al gewoond daaraan dat die agb Minister minstens die inligting kom deel met die Parlement, en ons verwelkom dit. Ek wil, in die beperkte tyd wat ek het, vir die agb Minister s dat daar twee aspekte is waaraan die agb Minister moet aandag gee.
U moet aandag gee aan hoe dit moontlik is dat 'n maksimumsekuriteit- gevangene kan verander in 'n mediumsekuriteit-gevangene. Dit is nie aanvaarbaar nie. U identifiseer dit as 'n probleem. U moet vasstel hoekom daardie probleme ontstaan.
Daar is 'n ander aspek wat ek onder u aandag wil bring. U het netnou gehoor dat R857 miljoen van die belastingbetaler spandeer is aan hierdie tronk. Dit word ook beskryf as die hotel van tronke. Ek wil u vra dat daardie toerusting wat vernietig is deur die gevangenes nie vervang sal word nie. As hulle hul televisieskerms breek en vernietig en as hulle die telefone breek en vernietig, moet hulle 'n les geleer word. Hulle moet leer dat die belastingbetaler nie elke keer daarvoor gaan opdok nie. As hulle dit nie wil gebruik nie, gaan hulle dit nie kry nie. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr P J GROENEWALD: Deputy Speaker, we are now used to the fact that the hon Minister comes to Parliament and at least shares the information with us; we welcome it. I want to say to the hon Minister in the limited time at my disposal that there are two issues she should focus on.
You must investigate as to how it is possible for a maximum security prisoner to be transformed into a medium security prisoner. It is unacceptable. You identify this as a problem. You must determine why those problems arise.
There is another aspect I want to bring to your attention. Earlier on you heard that R857 million of taxpayers' money have been spent on this prison. This prison has also been described as the hotel among prisons. I want to ask you that the equipment that the prisoners destroyed must not be replaced. If they break and destroy their television screens and their telephones, then they must be taught a lesson. They must learn that the taxpayer will not foot the bill every time. If they do not want to use them, they will not receive them. I thank you.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, there are existing channels to deal with grievances, and if grievances are not attended to by prison authorities, complaints can be laid with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services. The ACDP therefore believes that it is unacceptable that prison warders should be held hostage and that prison facilities be set alight. This can never be justified. Quite rightly the Police Force was called in to contain the riot and to secure the release of hostages.
The question arises who prisoners obtained a cigarette lighter from. Was this indeed smuggled into the prison by a warder, as alleged in the media? The issue of warders colluding with prisoners to obtain contraband goods for payment remains a very serious problem, as admitted by the Minister, and must be addressed.
The ACDP looks forward to the findings of the internal investigation and trusts that the Ministry and the department will take all steps necessary to ensure that such lawlessness and riotous behaviour do not occur again in any of our facilities. We can be thankful that the riot was contained quickly and that there was no serious injury or loss of life in what was a very serious and life-threatening situation. Clearly one needs to look into management and prison classification issues, as alluded to by the hon Fritz. I thank you.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker and hon members. Hon Minister, when I heard that you were coming to brief us, I exclaimed "Not again!" Hon Minister, how does it happen that maximum security offenders are being irregularly reclassified? Please investigate and inform this House, also about what has been done about those who effected the so-called reclassification.
Hon Minister, you came here last time about Harrismith, and I guess this House would appreciate an update on what the findings were. Thank you.
Deputy Speaker, hon Minister, as you indicated earlier, on 5 August the portfolio committee visited the Kimberley Correctional Centre where we had an opportunity to interact with the centre management, the four officials that were held hostage and a cross-section of inmates.
At this point, Minister, let us also agree with most of what our colleagues in the various political parties have said - including what you have said. We agree with all of that. There is one issue that Mr Groenewald raised which I will come back to later.
It is important at this point to indicate that the portfolio committee as a whole is united in the condemnation of those that participated in the hostage taking and in the burning of the facility. There can be no justification at all, hon members. We want to reiterate it: There can be no justification for the taking of hostages and for placing people's lives in danger, whether they are inmates or officials. Notwithstanding what Mr Fritz and others have said about the shortcomings, there can be no justification for taking hostages.
Having said that, we have a few concerns or observations that we'd like to raise, and they have been raised previously. We did observe as a committee, that the facility houses hardened offenders together with first-time, young offenders in the same cells. We are of the view that this will be a problem in terms of rehabilitation.
Firstly, we've been arguing for a while that at some point we will have to find a way of separating the first-time offenders from those that are hardened in order to speed up the rehabilitation. This is one area, Minister, which we think needs to be looked at.
Secondly, and you also alluded to this, Minister, we need to relook the deployment of our staff. You are correct, Minister, in that the four hostages or the four officials that were taken hostage were very young ladies with very little or no experience whatsoever in dealing with the nature of the inmates that were there. We have to look at how we deploy officials to our facilities. I am glad that you have, in fact, raised that, Minister.
Thirdly, another problem that we have picked up on is that there seems to have been very poor planning in, one, populating the facility - and we've spoken about the mixture of inmates - but two, also in the speed in which it was done. It seems to be the norm that it takes about six months roughly, so that the planning can be done, but in this particular case, in less than two months we filled 80% to 90% of it. I think that is an area that we need to look into.
Fourthly, hon members from both sides of the House spoke about the need to clarify and to reclassify inmates in the facility. I don't think that it would be helpful to have inmates in Kimberley that are maximum security inmates when we are led to believe that Kimberley is a medium centre facility. Surely some of the inmates that we saw there could quite easily qualify as maximum security inmates. We think that there is a need to classify the status of the facility, so that once we have clarified it, those that do not belong there can be sent to the appropriate facilities.
Fifthly, Madam Deputy Speaker, chairperson and Minister, it is our view - and you have alluded to it as well - that there is a need to urgently review senior management at that facility. We think that some of the senior management personnel are neither capable nor competent to run a facility of that nature. That is the view of the portfolio committee, and we think that it's an area that you need to look at.
One of my colleagues spoke about how the lighter or matches got into the facility. It is an area of concern for us that in some facilities of correctional services there is a no-smoking policy, like in Kokstad. In other facilities there's a smoking policy. We think that there must be a standard policy in terms of smoking or no smoking in a correctional centre.
My own view, and a view shared by many of my colleagues, is that a correctional centre is a public facility. Public facilities generally are no-smoking areas, and it might sound harsh but I am of the view that all correctional centres should be no-smoking areas. That's my personal view. [Applause.] I want to turn next to what Mr Groenewald said.
Meneer, ek kan nie met u saamstem dat hulle 'n les geleer moet word as daar iets verkeerd gedoen is in die fasiliteit nie. Korrektiewe Dienste gaan nie oor lesse leer vir mense nie. Dit gaan oor rehabilitasie. Ek kan dus nie met u saamstem nie. Ek dink wat ons moet doen, is om hulle wat betrokke was by hierdie tipe goed te stuur na plekke waar hulle gerehabiliteer kan word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Sir, I cannot agree with you that they must be taught a lesson if they do something wrong in the facility. Correctional Services is not about teaching people lessons. It is about rehabilitation. Therefore, I cannot agree with you. I think what we should do is to send those who were involved in these things to places where they can be rehabilitated.]
A facility such as Kimberley, which should be a flagship, should be used for rehabilitation. I agree with you that those who are guilty must be sent for serious rehabilitation, but it can't be that we say inmates ...
... moet 'n les geleer word.
Adjunkspeaker, is die agb lid bereid om 'n vraag te neem? S u ja? [Tussenwerpsels.] Verstaan ek die agb lid korrek? S die agb lid dat rehabilitasie insluit dat belastingbetalers se geld maar elke keer net aangewend kan word as hulle luukshede soos televisies en telefone vernietig? Dit is wat ek ges het. Ek het ges dat dit belastingbetalers se geld is. U s dat hulle dit maar elke keer kan breek en die belastingbetaler moet maar elke keer betaal daarvoor totdat hulle gerehabiliteer is. Is dit wat u s? (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[... must be taught a lesson.
Deputy Speaker, is the hon member prepared to take a question? Are you saying "yes"? [Interjections.] Am I understanding the hon member correctly? Are you saying that rehabilitation means that taxpayers' money can be used every time they break luxury items such as televisions and telephones? That is what I said. I said that it is taxpayers' money. You are saying that they can break it every time and that the taxpayers must just foot the bill until they have been rehabilitated. Is that what you are saying?]
Let me rather speak in my mother tongue. Let me speak in my mother language so that you can understand. No, I am not saying that every time that it's done we must pay for it. However, Mr Groenewald, we must accept that all these people who we are talking about, at some point in their lives, are going to re-enter society.
If we adopt the attitude that you are adopting, of being harsh to them, then all we are achieving is to see them return to our facilities as hardened criminals, and that's the offset that we must balance. I am arguing that we have them as a captive audience at the facilities.
Our focus should be rehabilitating them because within the next couple of years they are going to re-enter society. We should rather have them rehabilitated than have them the other way where they are hardened. That's all I'm saying. I am not arguing and am not going take another question - I am not! No, no, I'm not! We'll do it off the record. All I am saying is I can't agree that it must be retributive. That's all I am saying. [Interjections.] Thank you, sir. Let us agree.
Consequently, Minister, the committee and the ANC think that the department must urgently - and it was raised by others - investigate the causes of this action with the view of identifying those that led it, reclassifying those that led it, and sending them to facilities that are more appropriate. That's the first action that I think we should take speedily.
Lastly, Minister, we think, and we have raised it earlier, that both the Ministry and the department must intervene with the aim of strengthening the management at Kimberley, so that similar instances or occurrences never take place in the future. And it's only with the strengthening of the facility in terms of the management of that facility that we could be ensured that this type of matter doesn't reoccur. Thank you very much, Minister. Thank you, Deputy Speaker.
Debate concluded.