Chairperson, hon Minister of the Department of Correctional Services Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the chairperson of the portfolio committee Mr Vincent Smith, Ministers and Deputy Ministers from sister departments, hon members of the House, our National Commissioner Ms Xoliswa Sibeko, management and officials from correctional centres in our midst, representatives of nongovernmental organisations and other civil society formations, distinguished guests already acknowledged by the Minister, my husband Pat Mkhize sitting in front of me, ladies and gentlemen, in my introduction I would like to say that it is indeed an honour and a privilege to stand in front of this august House to deliver my maiden speech as Deputy Minister of Correctional Services.
This is a fascinating phase in our growing democracy, characterised by a successfully concluded fourth democratic election, with unprecedented numbers, which gave this administration a resounding vote of confidence and a mandate to continue with the transformation agenda.
Chairperson, allow me to add my voice in extending a word of appreciation and gratitude to the previous Minister, Minister Ngconde Balfour, and Deputy Minister Loretta Jacobus, for their contribution in accelerating the transformation of Correctional Services, as well as to all correctional officials, particularly those managing our correctional centres on a daily basis. I also want to extend the same sentiments to all NGOs in our midst here which operate within our correctional centres and ensure the smooth reintegration of our offenders into communities.
From the onset, I have to put the challenge and the task at hand in its context. We are facing our own history of the apartheid system, which was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations as far back as 1948. The apartheid system led to the breakdown of the African family unit, and the loss of community values and the spirit of ubuntu. The long-term generational consequences of the said state-orchestrated violence are illustrated by numbers of young people who are continuously in conflict with the law.
The Correctional Services Act of 1998 and the White Paper of 2005 are critical pillars of our new agenda. These instruments have laid a firm foundation for a correctional system within an ethical framework which protects the integrity of our processes. The most important of these is respect for the inherent human dignity - as emphasised by the chairperson of our portfolio committee - of all human beings, irrespective of their personal or social status.
We are presenting aspects of the Budget Vote at a time when the department is resolved to intensify implementation. It is our firm belief that the South African society should begin to reap the fruits of the promises of the White Paper. Hon Selfe, you will be happy to note that it is our resolve to focus on the implementation of the promise of the White Paper. Some of the aspects that I've taken from Minister focus specifically on the promise of the White Paper for the people of South Africa.
This shift in policy inculcates a new culture and mindset, by placing the victim at the centre of the concept of restorative justice. The world learned an important lesson from the truth and reconciliation process, that a lot more can be achieved through the restoration of the dignity of the other person than through vindictiveness.
Our new paradigm is based on the premise that victims should remain at the centre of the criminal justice system. The Victims Charter balances the scales of justice and ensures that our work with offenders does not compromise our duty and responsibilities towards victims. It emphasises our commitment to put the needs of victims at the heart of the criminal justice system. In this regard, the implementation framework, that is, offender detention, classification, rehabilitation and social integration programmes, is influenced by our determination to break the cycle of recidivism.
Classification of offenders on admission is a critical step in the process of devising effective rehabilitation programmes. Classification categories become an objective instrument through which to measure corrections and development of inmates. For instance, in the case of repeat offenders, our specialists will have to account in cases of frequent occurrences of serious crimes, such as sexual crimes and murder. As things stand today, we can trace patterns of classification by category of offence, such as: children in conflict with the law, young women and the crimes that they are accused of and incarcerated for, murders by women, cash-in-transit heists and armed robbery, and so on.
Coming back to offender rehabilitation, I challenge all correctional officials to live to up to the spirit of the White Paper. Approach your work with commitment, diligence and integrity, with zero tolerance for corruption. We commend you for choosing to work with men and women who are deprived of their liberty, many of whom have committed serious crimes. We rely on you to transfer the values and skills of good citizenry, so as to ensure that they return to society as socially responsible and law-abiding citizens.
Having placed rehabilitation at the centre of all activities, we will continue to strike a balance between safe custody and rehabilitation - but certainly we have an intention to make a clear shift from emphasis on security aspects only. I will call upon the offenders to seize opportunities afforded to them with both hands and begin the journey towards self-correction and regain their liberty. To support this call, elements of the White Paper have been translated into the Offender Rehabilitation Path, which illustrates the journey of an offender from the point of entering the correctional facility to the point of reintegration into society.
Correctional Services has adopted a unit management approach, which focuses on the direct supervision of offenders, whereby each inmate will be allocated to case officers. With the new approach, each inmate is the focal point. This new approach tracks each individual offender so that they are not lost in the system. The path of the offender is monitored until reintegration is complete.
I think our Minister has spoken about strengthening our interventions to fight HIV and Aids, with special emphasis on what we intend to do with our specialists, psychologists and psychiatrists, so as to supplement medical care and ensure that there is also value-based education while people are within our centres. But, of course, as the Minister has indicated, we are in consultation with all experts and we'll be able to report the outcomes of our consultation in due course.
Concerning rehabilitation challenges, any therapist who has ever devised a rehabilitation programme will talk about prerequisites which are essential for interventions to be effective. For the purpose of this Budget Vote, I will be the first to admit that current challenges have too many confounding variables. These have to do with overcrowding; the ill- preparedness of our officials to be caretakers of the rehabilitation programmes as against custodial carers; the high levels of illiteracy amongst our offenders; the conspiracy of silence on the magnitude of dysfunctional families; moral degeneration in society, including the diminishing spirit of ubuntu; and lack of compassion - as you have seen and learnt about some of the crimes that are committed amongst our people. For example, on the question of overcrowding, our bed capacity, as has been said, is about 115 000 against an inmate population of 165 000. This represents 42% overcrowding, which has a negative impact on morale, provision of services and security.
Regarding special categories of offenders, the White Paper has made provision for a needs-based rehabilitation approach - as I've indicated above - which implies that offenders are not a uniform entity. There are different categories, such as women, children, awaiting-trial detainees, young offenders, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
Coming to women, Chairperson, I'm saddened to announce to this House that just yesterday I accompanied the Minister to the Pollsmoor Correctional Centre, where we came face to face with the difficulties experienced by infants, children and women in correctional centres. Much as we acknowledge the fact that some of them have broken the law, the majority of them come from extremely difficult socioeconomic conditions. What touched us most was the reality of seeing infants paying the price, and young children below the age of two growing up within incarceration centres with limited exposure to early childhood development programmes, which are a foundation that takes people throughout their life path.
Our biggest challenge is that our facilities - as hon members have said - were never designed to address the special needs of women. Our aim is to turn the situation around, working hand in hand with gender experts in the community, to address facilities and programmes and to seek alternative forms of serving a sentence.
The international protocols are clear about the need to avoid imprisonment of women unless it is a measure of absolute last resort, and I believe that we have not fully explored these options as a nation. Moreover, our facilities where never designed to address the needs of women and other special categories of offenders, including children and people with disabilities. Changing our facilities and implementing diversion programmes by working in collaboration with society, accepting this approach, are key areas of delivery in this regard. A framework for realising these goals is expected to be finalised as soon as possible.
The issue of very small babies in correctional facilities requires particularly sensitive consideration. Currently, there are 151 infants between nought and two years old within our correctional centres. The Correctional Services Act makes provision for keeping children up to the age of two years with their incarcerated mothers in our correctional facilities. Our turnaround strategy will include collaboration with experts in the field and will ensure that early childhood development programmes are introduced. All interventions will be aimed at ensuring that their environment is rendered normal as soon as this can be done.
To address the plight of infants in our correctional centres, our department will soon launch a campaign aimed at the social integration of these infants. In this regard, we are inviting communities, religious organisations, civil society at large, and private sector companies to join us in establishing a sustainable network towards this just cause. All our efforts should be geared towards achieving what is in the best interests of the child.
According to recent statistics there were 860 sentenced children, females - the number of females is also gradually increasing - and about 803 unsentenced children in our facilities, as at March 2009. A report released in September by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission blames the lack of a systematic and uniform criminal justice system for failure to protect children in conflict with the law. It is our belief that the Child Justice Bill will begin to shed light on how best to approach this problem.
The above incidence remains our shame. This remains the case even though our icon, Mr Nelson Mandela, as far back as 1993, upon receiving his Nobel Peace Prize, said, "It is a matter of shame and serious concern that many children in our country are idling in our prisons and police stations."