Chairperson, I will keep this short and sweet. The committee visited Groenpunt on 16 January this year after riots had broken out a week earlier. At the time of our visit, 408 inmates had been transferred to other facilities because they were identified as ringleaders. Nine officials were injured during the uprising or the unrest, three of whom were hospitalised, and over 50 inmates were injured during the uprising.
At the time of our visit both the head of the centre and the area commissioner had been placed on suspension. We were informed that the grievances raised by offenders that caused the riots were, amongst other things, food shortages, poor infrastructure, poor medical care, a lack of development and rehabilitation programmes and a host of other complaints. The committee itself observed the chronic overcrowding in the facility. We observed the poor infrastructure in the maximum centre and we observed the undesirable ratio between officials and inmates.
However, notwithstanding all the issues that we have raised, the committee wants to state very strongly that it condemns any abuse of officials or offenders. We condemn any abuse. Equally, we condemn the destruction of state property, regardless of the grievances of the offenders. We condemn the destruction of state property and we condemn assaults on officials by inmates. We want to reiterate that there is no justification for any of these things, and that is what we put on record in January and we want to repeat it today.
Our recommendations to the Department of Correctional Services, through the Minister, are: firstly, that the department refine its practices, especially during emergency situations, Minister; secondly, we ask that the department deal with the staff shortages, as they have the potential of hampering service delivery, and that was part of the gripes; thirdly, we urge the department, especially because of the prevalence of cellphones and other illegal objects that were found in that centre, to deal urgently with the scourge of Correctional Services officials colluding with inmates because the smuggling happens between some of our officials that collude with inmates, and we ask that that be dealt with urgently; and, finally, we urge that the investigations, both by the department and by the Judicial Inspectorate, be finalised speedily and that all inmates and officials found guilty of any inappropriate behaviour face sanctions, including criminal cases, if necessary. We ask that this report be adopted. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
There was no debate.