Ndi thome nga u lumelisa Mudzulatshidulo, Minisita vhashu Vho Lamula, na Vhamusanda vhashu vha Vho Holomisa, ri?e vha EFF a ri khou tikedza muvhigo hoyu.
English:
Chairperson, the Department of Correctional Services is supposed to be leading in the rehabilitation and correcting the behaviour of criminals and those found on the wrong side of the law.
Tshiven?a:
Vho Minista, dzhele dzashu ndi ?ifhasi ?a zwigevhenga, ndi shango ?o tshinyalaho vhukuma ngauri ho tshinyala sisiteme ya vhafariwa, ha dovha ha tshinyala na vhalangi vha vhafariwa. Vhaofisiri vho?he vha khou ita vhua?a vhuhulwane, zwine zwa kombetshedza uri vhafariwa vha bve vha songo wana vhululamisi havhu?i.
English:
We had earlier this year about how senior officials of the department used Bosasa looting money under the pretext of providing services in the prisons. This is a thorny issue Minister. Few weeks ago we heard reports that 5000 chickens and dozens of pigs from farms situated inside St Albans and Muldersdrift prisons in the Eastern Cape were stolen. These were used to feed prisoners, and it does not need rocket science to figure out who stole them. Those were prison officials of the department who are stealing food in the prison farms.
Tshiven?a:
Ri dovha ra vhilaedzwa nga uri vhaswa vhashu vha vho ?ala hangei dzhele nahone hezwi zwi fhedza zwi khou pfumisa vhathu vhane vha vha na khamphani dza vhululamisi ha vhafariwa
English:
While this is the case, our prison facilities are turning petty criminals into hardcore criminals who come out of the system to be a thorn to society. According to the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, South African prisons have a population of more than 160 000 inmates, 16 000 of whom are serving life sentences.
There are only 119 O00 bed spaces available in our prisons at the moment, which means that the correctional services are overcrowded by over 40 000 prisoners and majority of these inmates are remanded detainees, who could be released on bail if we had properly functioning lower courts. It costs the department over R123 000 per annum to keep an individual inmate in jail. Most of these inmates live in overcrowded conditions, driving most of them to various forms of illnesses, most notably, mental illnesses.
The report from Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services last year indicated that 1 200 inmates had diagnosed with some form of mental illness during its inspections, and that most of these inmates received no special medical care, and were treated at the prison and kept with the general population.
As a consequence, almost 40% of deaths in prison are resulting from suicides; on the other hand, thousands of young black people who most of them are remanded for petty crimes, will have their lives changed permanently inside a very wrong system of correctional services.
This situation cannot continue any longer. And the state must commit to doing the following: do urgent audit of the seriousness of the
crimes of remand detainees and release from prison all those who had committed petty crimes; increase the funding and mandate of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services allow it to be thorough in its work of inspecting prisons and holding the department accountable by giving constructive input to the department; build sufficient capacity to handle mental illness cases in prisons; transform correctional services to include compulsory education and skilling for all prisoners. This will be followed by the scrapping of the criminal record statuses of ex-convicts who were convicted of certain schedules of crime depending on the seriousness of the crimes committed; ensure that no correctional services facility or programme is run by a private corporative or company, as these are not interested in the well-being of inmates, but in making profits; cancel all catering contracts and make sure that inmates themselves engage in productive work, such as agriculture and others get trained to cook for the prisons in which they are held; and provide incentives to ... [Interjections.] ... protect me Chairperson, from this hooliganism
The CHAIRPERSON (Mr F D XASA: Hon Dyantyi, your voice is too loud, you are disturbing the speaker.