Sihlalo weNdlu, uMphathiswa namaSekela baPhathiswa uJeffery noHolomisa, Aaah Dilizintaba!
English:
The pursuit of restorative justice in South Africa was an integral part of the struggle for liberation by our people led by ANC in this country. As a direct consequence of that firm belief, the notion of Correctional Services became consistent with our progressive Constitution as opposed to prison, which is merely about sending them away, and people on my left believe that. That you must just create prison and lock them in. But to sustain the notion of Correctional Services, rehabilitation programme is essential.
IsiXhosa:
Ululeko ke luthi, ukuba ungene unguntsangwini, usisidlwengu okanye ungumbulali kufuneka uphume ungumntu.
English:
That is what rehabilitation is about. [Applause.] As we stand here today, these noble imperatives of a people centred struggle, are confronted with a number of setbacks. Perhaps before we begin, let us pause! There is an emerging crisis in our hands. That threatens to derail the best of efforts by any human being. You can have the best commissioner, you can have the best prison warders but if you are not addressing certain things, you will fire them tomorrow.
The problem of overcrowding in Correctional Services in our country has reached crisis proportions. Without any doubt, the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality remain the driving force for this. Let's just put overcrowding in perspective and in numbers, as other members have raised it. We have 118 572 bed spaces across the country but we have 162 857 inmates. Before you start, you already know that there is a problem there. It's over 37% overcrowded.
The number of gangsters in incarceration is rising. When there are Budget cuts, it means that you are not going to have maintenance of your infrastructure. This is a crisis that is in our hands. Perhaps let's leave the national picture and give a particular case about St Albans, as the Chair was saying that last week we got a report from Judge Johan Froneman of the Constitutional Court. That report raises very critical issues about St Albans in the Eastern Cape; it hosts the largest inmates in Remand. A report by this Judge suggests that there has been no rehabilitation in St Albans since 2014, which means that your Correctional Services notion is defeated because it hangs on that. [Interjections.]
High levels of violence outside gangs operate in prisons. So, those that are in prison connect with those that are outside. Injuries on
duty are a cause of staff shortages. St Albans has 53 staff members shortages, not just because they have stopped working but because of injury on duty. That is a serious issue on our hands. In the same centre, you have drugs delivered over the fence, lights not working in cells, the pressure on Remand centres has unintended consequences for the bailing out of inmates who under normal circumstances would not even be considered.
Now let's put another perspective on overcrowding about the root causes. Me and the hon Selfe comes from the Western Cape and the Western Cape has the largest incarceration of allocation of inmates - the second largest. And here are the contributing factors because there would be no solution, it doesn't matter how many prisons you build as long as you don't attend. And, let me share with you, under the ANC in the Western Cape, this is what was happening, hon Selfe. Contact crime dropped by 33%, street robbery dropped by 19%, car hijacking dropped by 23% because what that means is that you have less people going to jail.
Under DA, contact crime rose by 17%, street robbery rose by 5%, property related crime rose by 20%. What that means is that ... hon Selfe cannot come here and pretend as if somebody else must solve this when the DA in the Western Cape where you are, is contributing
to the rights of overcrowding because that is the cause root why we have full jails. We must attend to those root causes and not only deal with the symptoms of the problem.
The ANC has always understood that a sustainable solution is the one that deals effectively with crime producing conditions, which today as I said yesterday, hon Cele must bring police and soldiers to Philippi because there is no access, roads, there are no street lights. No soldier will build a house; no soldier will create employment for unemployed people, it is you running a province that must do that. I thought I must share that with you so that we understand what we are dealing with here.
This we said as far back in our Ready to Govern document in 1992, the DA solution is to build more prisons and send them away. Let's perhaps deal with the way forward issues. The ANC when it gathered in Nasrec, in 2017, gave its deployees in government, from the President to the Minister, some of the following - now we are coming up with the solutions that we are already grabbling with.
The ANC has mandated the Sixth Parliament to ensure that there is better coherence between the Criminal Justice System to curb the rise of Remand detainees who contribute to overcrowding; that we
need to have a workable strategy on hard core criminals and issues of petty crimes. And here is an important issue on overcrowding; government must develop mechanism to enable the state to try in our community courts any offender who committed petty crimes, so we don't send them to major prisons. We have to deal with that in community courts. Government must attend to the transformation of the parole board so that it is informed by key strategic issues. Embark on creative utilisation of inmates to contribute to the maintenance of challenge in prisons; and I think we have made this point Commissioner, in the presentation under the department, that there are certain things that you can't need money for. That some of the inmates that are there have skills that can do certain things around maintenance, that we must prioritise that ...
IsiXhosa:
... ukuze bangagcinwa njee ejele.
English:
Now, let me come to a party that has rejected this Vote when we met as a committee. They kept silent here now. They rejected the APP and the Budget. And by extension, when they were rejecting that, you were rejecting all of the good efforts that are happening in prisons. We were surprise why they would reject it but immediately
realised that it is the very same party, the EFF, which in its manifesto, had no answer on Correctional Services. [Interjections .] So, there is no wonder why they are not able to provide any solutions. [Interjections.]