Hon Chairperson, Deputy Minister and hon members of the House, the Department of Correctional Services occupies an unenviable but crucially necessary place in the criminal justice system. The department is obliged to admit, house, clothe, feed, rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders referred to them by the courts. These offenders are frequently very violent and manipulative. Many offenders are extremely rich and have contact with criminals outside prison. Therefore the work that ordinary officials perform, particularly in the sections and centres, is frequently dangerous. We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to them for the work they do.
The fact is that unless offenders are corrected and rehabilitated, we will not make South Africa a safer place to live in. But the sorry reality is that most offenders are not rehabilitated. In fact, many emerge from prison more criminalised than when they were admitted.
This is because most prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. Many prisons or parts of prisons are controlled by the gangs for large periods of the day. Most offenders do not get the rehabilitative interventions they need, or do not get them in sufficient intensity. Most offenders do not learn skills or the habits of hard work in prison.
Speaking of the gangs, it is a damning reflection on the extent of gang control in our prisons that an advertising agency can use this as part of a campaign against drunken driving. Are we so completely complacent about the fact that gangs control prison life that abuse is an accepted part of the punishment? There is a way to break this cycle, but it requires imagination and bold leadership. It starts with the institution of a system of alternative sentences, so that not every offender lands up in prison where he or she can be criminalised by gangsters.
It involves having an inmate tracking system, so that more parolees and probationers can be released without the risk of their absconding. It involves prisons that are less crowded and designed with rehabilitation in mind. It requires dedicated and incorruptible staff who understand what is needed to rehabilitate offenders. It is based on the understanding that prisons work where prisoners work and prisons are self-sufficient. The department needs to ensure that resources flow to these priorities.
Unfortunately, not much progress has been made towards these goals. While the Criminal Procedure Act provides for alternative sentences, they are not being used as widely as they could be. Specifically, many more offenders who do not constitute a danger to society need to do community service instead of serving prison time. This will relieve the pressure on overcrowding, but this requires the social reintegration branch to be properly resourced. This programme receives only 3,5% of the budget - far too little for magistrates to feel confident that those performing community service will be properly monitored and supervised.
Likewise, the progress towards rolling out inmate tracking devices has been painfully slow and we hope that the Minister's expensive visit to New York will provide new impetus to this project. The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services was told that Cabinet has blocked start-up funding for the electronic monitoring project. The Minister needs to explain to the Cabinet that it is much cheaper to monitor a parolee or probationer in the community than it is to imprison that person.
The progress towards the construction of new-generation prisons has been equally slow. The department's reluctance to go ahead with public-private partnership, PPP, prisons has been attributed to concerns about cost- effectiveness, but what is inexplicable is the delay in the completion of the facilities the department is constructing itself.
A very good example is the prison in Vanrhynsdorp. Its completion is two years overdue. Sections of this prison had to be broken down and reconstructed when the plans were found to be deficient. I understand there were at least 13 variations of these plans. For example, single cells without toilet facilities were constructed for women. The manganese- enriched steel for the window bars was substandard. The changes to the plans of this prison, many of which might have been avoided with foresight and proper planning, have not only involved delays but also wasted expenditure running into many millions of rands. I believe that R10 million alone was spent on sinking a street within the complex, so that prisoners could not be seen when they walked about.
Whatever the disadvantages of the PPP prisons may be - and I suspect much of the opposition is misinformed and ideological - they at least were finished on time and within budget.
Then there is the recruitment and retention of staff. More than 100 members of the department's staff leave the service every month. Over and above this, there are large numbers of vacancies, especially of skilled artisans, educators and health professionals. There are still too many officials working in administrative and managerial posts and not enough working at the coalface, rehabilitating offenders.
Nothing should stop offenders from working! There are correctional centres that have production workshops that don't produce anything. There are farms that stand fallow. The portfolio committee was told that there was not enough custodial staff to allow the farms to be employed optimally. The portfolio committee was also told that expansions to broiler projects were approved at four correctional centres, but were rejected by the department's national building advisory committee. Bakeries in seven correctional centres are the subject of feasibility studies. Too little, too late, we say. Offenders should be active and productive for a minimum of eight hours a day. If there's not enough work for them in the prisons, they can always fill potholes and clear up the rubbish in the City of Johannesburg and other ANC-controlled municipalities.
Most disturbingly, the budget we are asked to approve once more does not reflect and underscore the orientation. Once more, security and administration programmes absorb the lion's share of the budget. Once more, the development, care and social reintegration programmes receive a scant 17,5% of the budget. We have to ask this question: Is the department serious about correcting offending behaviour and rehabilitating offenders? There is nothing the Minister or the department has told us to convince us that they are. Notwithstanding our reservations as mentioned in my speech, the Western Cape and the DA support Budget Vote No 21. I thank you. [Applause.]