In terms of incarceration, we are number one in Africa, and we are number nine in the world. [Applause.] That is a matter that we want to reduce.
We want fewer people inside correctional centres and more people out there. So we have initiated a programme and are continuing with the Victim- Offender Dialogue Programme. This programme calls upon all of us to ensure that the inmates come to the realisation that what they did was wrong and that they want to reconcile with the victims. In terms of the criminal justice system, most of the time we concentrate on the criminal, not on the victim.
Now if we have a person with us who is an offender, we say that they have to go out there and make amends to the victim. That is why the Worcester bomber, Mr Coetzee, who, after bombing and killing four people, regretted that not more people died, is a totally changed person today who wants to reconcile with the victims. We facilitated that. The people from Worcester came to Pretoria and reconciled with him, and with Mama Macingwane and did all of that. So we want all members here to adopt that programme to ensure that we take the offenders to reconcile with the victims, to ensure that we create a much more conducive atmosphere when that person comes out. That will become true rehabilitation. Rehabilitation means, in the first instance, that people admit to themselves that what was done was wrong and, secondly, they want to make amends.
That process is now going on quite widely in a lot of areas. The hon Ngwenya has facilitated quite a number of those victim-offender dialogues right there in Soweto. Others we've had in Mpumalanga; others we've had elsewhere.
We want the hon Max to facilitate that as well, so that we don't just point and say "those offenders, those offenders," but that we also rehabilitate them and we move on that programme.
The issue of gangsterism is not an issue that is just inside. The inside of the correctional centres is a microcosm. If you walk around, particularly here in this province, there are a lot of gangsters. Together we should move and perhaps use the people who are already convicted to assist in unearthing those people.
We should be talking to them and weaning them off gangsterism. We should not just say that they are gangsters. The gangsters are outside, and we should be working together to ensure that those gangs are broken up and that the gangsters become law-abiding citizens. We should be using the inmates as a resource, because they are already exposed. They have nothing to hide; they have nothing to lose.
We have said that this is the year of the correctional official. Let us look at the official. He stands between society and the person who perhaps has murdered and slit the throats of people. He stands there unarmed on a daily basis.
When a person is frustrated - if he is doing a 100-year sentence - what does he have to lose? If he kills an official, what does he have to lose? You cannot give him the death sentence. You cannot do anything. You can perhaps withdraw privileges like letter-writing or that sort of thing.
Can I invite members to the Townhouse Hotel for refreshments after this. I thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]