Chairperson, with the very limited time allocated to me I wish to dedicate my input on this budget to issues related to rehabilitation of inmates and their reintegration into the community.
The first important issue is the social reintegration programme. This issue becomes more crucial when we look at the age of our youth who are in these correctional centres. Some leave school very early and they spend more time in than out of these facilities. The question is: How do we reintegrate them into society? For the most part, once they are released, they are too old to go back to school. They are unemployable yet at the same time they regard themselves as grown up.
We appreciate the effort made by the department officials on the Offender Rehabilitation Path. The key issue is education and participation in sports which could help in the improvement of the skills levels of offenders and enhancement of opportunities for their employability in partnership with the external service providers. Chairperson, we would like to see the sustainability of this programme. The question is, do we have enough funds to enhance this programme and enough trained officials to monitor?
The other thing is that as far as monitoring devices in Correctional Services are concerned, I suggest that there should be monitoring machines installed in cells so that the unauthorised movement of any person would trigger an alarm and alert correctional centre officials of such a movement. This will reduce escapes and a relevant incident like the latest Mathe escape attempt.
The other issue that we must not forget is the juvenile centre where we keep our young offenders. I know this will have to involve other departments such as Social Development. Focus on this issue has been lost. We did have such a centre namely Van Ryn Deep in Benoni and many, others. These centres have been closed. These centres must be reopened in order to keep young offenders out of the normal correctional centres and also to reduce the risk of placing some of these offenders who have committed serious offences in the custody of grannies and also guardians.
If I may go back to the issue of education, if you go to Westville you find excellent results. You find probably the best teachers who can teach. Now if we can have more of these centres where we can teach our youngsters then we would have alleviated this problem of society ... ... ngoba phela ucabange ukuthi ngonyaka ka 1976 laba bafundi - hhayi amacomrade - ababelwa babelwela inkululeko yemfundo ukuze abantu baphume ekuthini banesitha esiyimfundo, ukungafundi. Ngakho-ke abafundiswe laba bantu uma sebefike laphaya ezikhungweni zamajele. Ngiyabonga Sihlalo. [Ihlombe.]. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... because we must remember that it was the 1976 youth - and not the comrades - who fought for freedom in education so that people could come out of the mentality of seeing education as the enemy, thus not becoming educated. And therefore young offenders inside the correctional facilities must have a right to education. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]