House Chairperson, we would like to associate ourselves with the tribute paid Minister to the late Jonny Clegg, he was a great musician and a great South African. The Department of Correctional Services is a fully fledge government department, it employs it employs about 39,000 employees, and cares for about 166 O00 inmates, and about 75,O00 parolees and probationers.
What happens therefore in the Department of Correctional Services, DCS, matters, and we as Members of Parliament, MPs, should be seized with its challenges and problems. So, while we welcome the fact that the ministry is responsible for both Justice and Correctional Services, Parliament cannot properly exercise its oversight function without a stand alone portfolio committee for correctional services, or at very least a Subcommittee of the Justice Committee.
The experience during the Fifth Parliament underscored this fact - the DCS was left dangling in the wind, with little or no oversight.
We welcome the Chairperson' commitment that there will more oversight but he and I where both the briefing which the Minister gave outlining the legislative programme of the committee and once the legislative programme gets going, there is very little time for the sort of oversight that needs to take place in the department like this year's - oh yes an empty vessel makes the most noise.
One of the consequences of this is that the DCS has a reputation for being a place where corruption flourishes. The portfolio committee was briefed on the BOSASA scandal as early... [Interjection.