Madam Chairperson, the Department of Correctional Services has had a poor record over the past couple of years. The department has failed to deal with corruption in its ranks. It allowed high-profile inmates such as Ananias Mathe and Jean-Claude Lacote to escape from custody. It has had a series of qualified audits.
This year it renewed a catering contract with Bosasa, despite the fact that it was not the lowest bidder and while the previous contract is still being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit. It has not built the new- generation prisons first announced in 2002, and it gave medical parole to Schabir Shaik, when it was clear he did not qualify for it, and then refused to review the decision.
We were prepared to give the Minister the benefit of the doubt, as most of these decisions and policy failures were those of her predecessor, but she said at a press conference, and I quote:
I am now Minister Ngconde. I own the decisions he has taken, and if it means taking responsibility for these matters, I will.
To make matters worse, her department took out a series of full-page, full- colour advertisements in the weekend papers at vast cost, completely unnecessarily, to publicise her budget speech. This was at the same time as the hon the Minister of Finance told government departments to cut out wasteful expenditure and when we won't pay doctors a decent salary. For these reasons, we will not be supporting this Vote. [Applause.]