Hon Speaker, baby Mbatha, the newborn baby of Nosipho Mbatha, died of natural causes at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on 19 January 2011, two days after her birth. The baby was never admitted at Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre and, therefore, was not registered at all. As a result, the death could not be reported via the normal electronic reporting system of the office of the Inspecting Judge as no admission reference number had been allocated to the baby, since she died in hospital before her admission.
Baby Janse van Rensburg, the newborn baby of Maryka Janse van Rensburg, died at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on 23 December 2010, two days after her birth in hospital. The baby was never admitted at Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre and, therefore, could not be registered at all at that centre.
The only incident that was registered, which took place in Durban, was that of an aborted foetus on 24 March 2010, at about 00:30 in a communal cell. Thank you.
Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy Minister, one dead infant is one death too many. What policies and training have been put in place by the department to prevent any further deaths in our correctional services centres? Thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, well, as you would realise, those babies died almost at birth. However, what we do in the department is that, as soon as we detect that an inmate is pregnant, we separate her from other inmates and give her specialised treatment. That is what we do. Since January 2009, no infant has died in the Department of Correctional Services' centres. Thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, Deputy Minister, I just want to know whether or not you have gynaecologists in your department to prevent this from happening. Thank you.
Deputy Speaker, I mentioned that we give the expecting mothers specialised treatment, which means that there must be professionals who do the job. Thank you.
Deputy Speaker, Deputy Minister, given the fact that the law does not compel the department to report the deaths of infants to the judicial inspectorate - because the infants are not regarded as inmates - do you intend to propose an amendment to the Act to compel the department to report such deaths? Thank you.
Deputy Speaker, we would be willing to consider looking into that. Thank you. [Applause.] Steps regarding review of powers of Constitutional Court
36. The Leader of the Opposition (DA) asked the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development:
Whether he intends taking any steps in accordance with the President's comments that the powers of the Constitutional Court be reviewed; if not, why not; if so, (a) what powers will be reviewed, (b) why, in each case and (c) what are the further relevant details?