Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, fellow South Africans, hon members and comrades, our Constitution, the White Paper on Corrections and the Act that governs corrections affirm the need for, amongst other things, the human rights and human dignity of inmates, and also affirm the need to focus on the rehabilitation of those who find themselves incarcerated for having been found guilty of breaking the laws of the land. We agree with this approach.
At the same time, all law-abiding citizens, and especially those that have become victims of crime and criminality, expect justice, which many a time demands that inmates feel the pain of being incarcerated, as opposed to the perception of prison being a holiday. Again, we agree that time spent in incarceration must never be about inmates being idle and just lazing around 24 hours a day, every day of their term of incarceration. Inmates must contribute, through their labour and personal development, towards the running costs and decent upkeep of the prison facilities. At the same time, incarceration must afford offenders an opportunity to become better persons on their release.
It is common knowledge that many that were arrested and sentenced to time during the darkest days of apartheid, including on Robben Island, emerged as some of the most outstanding citizens that this country and the world have known. It is also very common to find a young person from Westbury or Eldorado Park arrested and sentenced for fairly minor crimes, such as shoplifting, and emerging from prison as a hardened criminal. Time spent in the university of prison can be very instrumental in winning the fight against crime and corruption.
I accept that there will be some amongst us who will argue strongly that the practice of insisting on inmates earning their keep could be construed as slavery or exploitation. I hold a contrary view. My humble view is that inmates being employed within the facility will contribute towards their rehabilitation, self-worth, dignity and skills development, all characteristics so vital for their eventual successful reintegration into society.
From this reality, Minister, it is very clear that the task of balancing these two seemingly contradictory positions on prison labour becomes extremely difficult to achieve. The debate about the utilisation of prison labour is an important debate that all South Africans must be engaged in. The successful rehabilitation of our ever-increasing prison population cannot be the responsibility only of the department and the Ministry. It is a societal responsibility that requires all of us, including the victims of crime, to play a role.
At this point let us reaffirm our support for the ideals of the policy direction of government. For us in the ANC, the debate must be whether the department, in its current form and focus, is best positioned to implement government policy effectively and efficiently. Let us also acknowledge that the department has experienced many challenges in recent years. Some of these challenges have been self-made and others are the result of developments outside the control of the department. Let us also acknowledge that much is being done currently by the department to overcome these challenges. However, a great deal more needs to and can be achieved.
Chairperson, current estimates are that the state spends anything between R190 and R240 per day per inmate - this compared to the state spending less than R70 per day on the aged for pension grants. This disparity in state spending between that spent on our elders, who have contributed most of their lives towards building a better South Africa, and those who find themselves in conflict with the law, demands of all of us to ensure that resources allocated to the department are well managed. It is from this background that we must answer the question whether, as a country, maximum benefit is derived from the R15,1 billion budget allocated to the Department of Correctional Services for the 2010-11 financial year.
A holistic analysis of the budget indicates that, of the R15,1 billion, the cost of compensation for employees stands at R10,5 billion. That is a staggering 69,5% of the budget. Capital costs stand at R1,1 billion, or 7,3% of the budget. In real terms, 76,8% of the department's budget is allocated for employee costs and capital projects, leaving only 23% for operational costs. Some of us believe that the employee cost versus the operations cost ratio should be managed downwards from the current 77:23 towards 60:40 in the short to medium term.
Chairperson, put slightly differently, for every R1 that the department spends, only 23 cents is used for direct programme-based work to prepare inmates for successful reintegration into society on release from their term of prison. We are concerned about this situation, more so because, on examination of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, the situation in 2010- 12 is that for every R1 that the department spends, only 21 cents will be allocated to programme-based work, with 64 cents going to employee compensation and 15 cents to assets.
Minister, we welcome your undertaking that the department will not budget for a deficit, as they presented to the portfolio committee. We will closely monitor that.
Within the Department of Correctional Services, the programmes aimed at contributing directly to government's priorities are corrections, care, development and social reintegration. It is therefore very disturbing that, combined, these four programmes are only allocated 27% of the total budget. Equally disturbing is the fact that if one examines the proposed MTEF figures until 2012-13, the average increase for each of these four programmes is only 11%. If inflationary increases are taken into account, the estimated real increase for service provision within these four programmes stands at between 5% and 6%, year on year for the next three years.
The current year's budget shows that of the R4,2 billion allocated to these four programmes that I've spoken about, R3,3 billion - that is 79% - is for employee compensation, leaving only R900 million, 21%, for inmate education, inmate technical skills development and inmate life skills development. This scenario, if left unchanged, cannot and will not result in those emerging from these centres of incarceration having been rehabilitated and ready to re-enter society as individuals who can contribute positively towards the creation of a better South Africa and a better world.
We are arguing here that because ex-inmates on release possess very little technical and life skills, survival outside of the prison environment is very difficult, and many tend to reoffend because in their view life is easier in prison. This is counterproductive in the fight against crime and corruption.
So, what is it that the department must do differently? It is our submission that a major part of the solution, and an immediate intervention, must be to explore ways of redirecting funds from employee compensation to inmate-specific programmes.
The second suggestion we offer as a partial solution to the question posed earlier - namely, what must be done differently by the department - is perhaps for the department to review its human resource deployment, so that if and when policy and programmes are developed at head office level there are sufficient warm bodies at prison centre level that understand these policies and that have the capacity to implement these policies. We recommend that the head office staff complement and staff that are officebound elsewhere within the department be rationalised in order to relocate these posts to areas where the actual implementation of programmes, in other words, the coalface of service delivery, needs to take place.
Chairperson, the final programme in the department is facilities. The estimates of national expenditure indicate that the department plans to upgrade facilities by increasing the total bed space by approximately 5 451 beds. Further analysis shows that here in the Western Cape, in Ceres, the average cost per bed space is R269 000; in Matatiele, the average cost per bed space is R792 000; and in Mapumulo, the average cost per bed space is R2,3 million. Minister, the new-age facility that has just been completed in Kimberley has an average cost per bed space of R328 000. Why the huge disparities? Are these transactions deriving the best value for money that can be achieved by the department, or is it not opportune to look at alternate methods of dealing with the challenge of overcrowding?
We also believe that the finalisation - and you alluded to it - of the processes under way in the building of the four new facilities will go a long way in enhancing the department's ability to provide better services. We urge that this process be expedited.
Minister, we welcome your initiative to set up a special task team to audit the staff complement and their functions. We believe that this exercise will assist in the better utilisation of personnel within the department and, more importantly, will ensure that there are no ghost workers on the department's payroll.
It might be an idea for this task team to recommend strategies that will address the consequences of the new two-shift system that has been implemented. There has been a concern raised by organised labour within the department that the new system has resulted in staff being overstretched, to the point where it is hazardous for the staff to perform certain functions because of the inmate-staff ratio at certain times.
Minister, ordinarily, this work that you've given the task team would be the task of management. We therefore urge you to ensure that the costs of this exercise, as well as the time frames, are closely monitored. As a committee on correctional services specifically, and as Parliament generally, there are concerns about the usage of consultants by departments that costs millions of rands for tasks that should be undertaken by the department.
We trust that the points raised will contribute in a small way towards assisting the department better to perform its responsibilities. Let us state categorically that the portfolio committee has a constitutional obligation to exercise oversight over the department. However, we also stand ready, Minister, to assist the department and yourself in any way possible in ensuring that, together, we all contribute to the building of a better society and a better life for all. The ANC will support the 2010-11 budget. [Applause.]