Chairperson, Ministers present here today, Deputy Minister, fellow South Africans, hon members, and my comrades, historically the South African prison system was a key pillar of the apartheid state apparatus. This prison system was largely based on racial discrimination, where detained people were subjected to human rights abuses.
Detention without trial and torture were the order of the day. The dehumanising pass laws required Africans to carry passes at all times, and failure to do so meant a jail sentence, resulting in many black South Africans being condemned to imprisonment.
The former ANC president, President Nelson Mandela, wrote in his autobiography, and I quote:
Van Rensburg was vindictive in large ways and small. When our lunch arrived at the quarry and we would sit down to eat - we now had a simple wooden table - Van Rensburg would inevitably choose that moment to urinate next to our food. I suppose we should have been grateful that he did not urinate directly on our food, but we lodged a protest against the practice anyway.
Pre-1994, a prison sentence meant total isolation from society and the limitation of such rights as the right to education, the right to proper health care and the right to nutrition that was fit for humans. These and many other rights were denied to offenders.
The ANC government, on assuming office, embarked on a concerted drive to transform the state of affairs in our correctional facilities. Prisons were reformed to become correctional facilities. Incarceration was no longer meant as an act of vengeance, but an opportunity for re-education and rehabilitation, as reflected in the Freedom Charter under the heading, All shall be equal before the law!
In the past in South Africa, the majority of correctional facilities were designed and built with large communal cells similar to the old mining compounds in which migrant labourers lived, which lead to overcrowding. Today, however, all new correctional facilities are designed in a manner that is consistent with the provisions of section 35(2)(e) of the Bill of Rights. Today, education and skills development are compulsory elements of the rehabilitation programme.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Health, together with the Deputy President of South Africa, installed the most advanced tuberculosis detection machine in South Africa at the Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison.
A couple of years ago, the Correctional Matters Amendment Act was signed into law by the President. This piece of legislation is meant to drastically reduce the time spent in our facilities by those who are yet to have their court trials finalised.
We raise these points to highlight the ANC's commitment to the Constitution and human rights for all, including those of inmates, both sentenced and unsentenced. Compatriots, the notion, as articulated by some, that life was better under apartheid is just not true. We must be honest, however, and acknowledge that more could have been done in the past 19 years. In addition, much more still needs to be done before we can claim that the ideals of a South Africa founded on the values of human dignity, equality and human rights for all have been attained.
When, in 2013, an offender loses his life due to the actions of officials of the Department of Correctional Services at the Groenpunt Correctional Centre, then we must acknowledge that work still needs to be done.
When, in 2013, officials are still being assaulted by inmates, then this indicates just how far we still need to go towards attaining the ideal of human rights for all. When vulnerable offenders are subjected to daily assaults and rape in our facilities by gang members, then we must urge the department to address these issues with the urgency they deserve.
Minister, the portfolio committee has consistently recommended that the department investigate the use of technology to jam cellphone signals in our facilities, as well as using CCTV cameras to manage abuses in cells after lock-down. These initiatives, we believe, can assist in strengthening the drive to improving human rights for all within the environment of the Department of Correctional Services.
Those wiser than I am have taught me that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. Comrades, inde lendlela [this is a long journey], but we must persevere. [Applause.]
Let us be very clear that notwithstanding the ANC's commitment to human rights for all, we take this opportunity to condemn, in the strongest terms, those individuals inside correctional facilities and those parolees who continue to brutalise and rape young children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
To those who are guilty of these dastardly deeds, we want to say that to do so is to spit on the graves of Chris Hani, Steve Biko, Bram Fischer, Solomon Mahlangu and many others who paid the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for a better South Africa.
The Department of Correctional Services has the mandate of contributing to maintaining and promoting a just, peaceful and safe society by correcting offending behaviour in a safe, secure and humane environment, thus facilitating optimal rehabilitation and reducing repeat offending. The Minister and my colleagues have, and will, outline what the department needs to do to achieve this mandate and to satisfy the provisions of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
I, however, would like to focus on what we believe can be done by other stakeholders to also assist in the attainment of this mandate. Firstly, with regard to the overcrowding situation in the remand detention facilities, we believe the SA Police Service needs to ensure that, upon arrest, there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial as soon as possible and definitely within the two years, as stipulated by the Correctional Matters Amendment Act.
We are pleased to hear that the SAPS has embarked on professionalising its services, including upskilling the detective units. This will go a long way in the reduction of time spent in remand detention, which is a major contributor to overcrowding in the correctional services facilities.
We further believe that when measuring productivity the SAPS should focus on the number of convictions rather than the number of arrests made. The SAPS must utilise the provisions of the bail protocol that allows for the granting of bail in certain instances, as opposed to incarceration whilst the trial is still being processed.
Secondly, we believe that offenders sentenced to a term of 24 months or less should be considered as candidates for correctional supervision and not incarceration. To date, the judiciary and the prosecuting authority have been reluctant to go this route, citing their doubts about the ability of the Department of Correctional Services to monitor the offenders' whereabouts if not incarcerated, or the department's ability to monitor whether, in fact, the offender is participating in the community corrections programme. This concern of the judiciary and the prosecuting authority can now be addressed by the roll-out of the electronic monitoring mechanism - as alluded to by the Minister - which the department has acquired, or is in the process of acquiring. The effect of this electronic monitoring on the inmate population will be an immediate reduction of approximately 8 668 inmates if the alternative-sentence option is applied to qualifying offenders.
Similarly, we urge that agreement must be reached with our SADC neighbouring countries to deport sentenced offenders to the country of their origin. This will result in our facility population being reduced by approximately a further 8 500 inmates. This is using the figures as at 31 December last year.
The Criminal Procedures Act, as it currently exists, provides for the conversion of prison sentences to correctional supervision. Our plea is that this option be used more frequently. Section 287(4)(a) of the Criminal Procedures Act can be applied when an offender cannot afford to pay a fine for which the alternative is a prison sentence of five years or less. The use of this section of the Act has been declining since 2003, and the question is: Why?
The third category of stakeholders that have an important role to play in assisting the department to achieve its mandate is civil society organisations, business and family members. This category is crucial in the preparation for the successful reintegration of offenders back into society.
We call on business to grant ex-offenders a second chance by employing them upon their release. We call on family members and communities to accept ex- offenders back into society without stigmatising or ostracising them. [Applause.]
It would be remiss of us not to express our disappointment at incidents like the recent one where a pastor - here in the Western Cape - who was granted access to inmates for the purpose of religious counselling, was found with drugs and illegal substances on his person, presumably to hand to the very offender he was meant to rehabilitate. Our message to all involved in this sector is that if you cannot help in the rehabilitation and reintegration efforts of offenders, the least that you can do is not to further destroy them.
We raise these points in order to illustrate that the department on its own cannot possibly succeed in its mandate of humane detention and rehabilitation without the contributions of the SA Police Service, the judiciary, the National Prosecuting Authority and society as a whole. We believe that working together we can do more to ensure a just, a peaceful and a safe society.
Finally, we urge the department to use effectively the R18,7 billion departmental budget. We advise, more specifically, that the R164 million budgeted for investment in information technology systems is used for the intended purposes.
Minister, one of the most important bedrocks for ensuring an unqualified audit opinion of the department's financial management is an effective IT system. We therefore urge the department to be less reliant on IT consultants and contractors, and rather rely on its employees, who are sufficiently skilled, to provide these critical services on an in-house basis.
Minister and National Commissioner, we, as the portfolio committee, remain confident and hopeful that the Department of Correctional Services is on the right track. The ANC supports this budget, and I thank you.