On behalf of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, I move:
That the Report be noted.
Declarations of vote:
House Chair, managing crime and criminals is not an easy task. However, South Africa is fortunate in that this responsibility is not just for government alone, but for the whole nation, because crime has become a major and national stress factor inside and outside prisons.
As a member who recently joined the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, it soon became clear to me that the relationship between the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, Jics, and the department and its executives is not fully functional.
The department seems "unsuitable" to Jics and does not take the recommendations or the work of Jics seriously. Yet Jics sees where the gaps exist and where they should be filled in the entire operation of the department. The inspectorate's duty is to ensure that every human right of people in our correctional centres is protected.
Cope echoes Jics's call that the Department of Correctional Services should not be notorious for segregation in prisons, the selective transfer of inmates, deaths in prisons, torture and assault by officials, pathetic medical care and controversial parolees. The relationship between the National Council for Correctional Services and Jics must be streamlined. As such, the Act must be amended. However, over the years the work of Jics has been stifled, because they rely on the very same Minister with whom they have issues relating to the implementation of their recommendations. That is an untenable situation.
Cope recognises the need to rewrite the Correctional Services Act. Chapter 9 of the Correctional Services Act of 1998 provides for the establishment of Jics as an independent entity, managed by an inspecting judge, according to section 85(1) of this Act. So, Jics was created by an Act of Parliament and should report their activities to Parliament directly, without fear of interference from the Minister.
Cope recognises that, according to section 91 of the Correctional Services Act, the Department of Correctional Services is responsible for Jics's expenses. Cope would like to see the separation of financial authorities in order to guarantee the independence of Jics. Cope would also like to see Jics's financial independence rectified through the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which South Africa is a signatory.
The Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009 provides for, among other things, a parliamentary procedure to amend Money Bills, thus granting parliamentary committees greater opportunity to sway the allocation of funds directly to Jics through section 5. Jics falls right within this call.
Chairperson, while the IFP supports the report, we want to put on record that the work of the Inspecting Judge must be respected by the department. The experience we have is that the department always looks down on the Inspecting Judge's recommendations. We want that to be taken on board when the report of the judge is presented to this department and to the portfolio committee, so that what the Judicial Inspectorate is doing is recognised by the department and is therefore implemented.
Secondly, the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate should be respected by the department. The department always frustrates the Inspecting Judge when it is doing its work. Therefore, the responsibility of the Inspecting Judge and the inspectorate must be properly respected. People working under the inspectorate must be respected so that they can identify problems. The department should adhere to recommendations made by the Inspecting Judge. We should be able to know exactly how far we are going to make sure that the rights of people who are in incarceration are protected and not violated.
House Chairperson, the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services plays an absolutely essential role in ensuring that all people who are incarcerated in our prisons are held in conditions of human dignity. Because of that, many strategy provisions are laid down in the Correctional Services Act on which the department has to report to the Judicial Inspectorate. These include the reporting and investigating of deaths of prisoners in non-natural circumstances, the segregation of prisoners and the use of mechanical constraints. What we are finding in the portfolio committee is that, as often as not, these things occur in the department without their being reported. In other words, the intention of the Act is being undermined by the officials on the ground.
That says to us that the very important work done by the Judicial Inspectorate is not being taken seriously, so much so that in one case an official of the Judicial Inspectorate was denied entry into the Vanrhynsdorp Correctional Centre. For that reason, we support the proposal that has served before the portfolio committee: that the Judicial Inspectorate gets its own budget, that it is made independent of the Department of Correctional Services so that it can act without fear and favour; and that Parliament ought to take its recommendations very seriously because it is the institution that is going to ensure that prisons are not run in the way they were under the apartheid regime. [Applause.]
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly noted.
