Chairperson, the individual, the child of God, is the touchstone of value. Society and the state exist for his or her benefit. In regard to the remission of sentences, practical meaning was given to this principle when the Minister, like a loving, concerned mother, appeared on television screens at one of the correctional centres where those who had been given remission were leaving the centre, greeting them and wishing them a happy, a worthwhile and a productive life outside of prison, simultaneously imploring them not to let her down by reoffending. This was a wonderful sight. I am going to come to the arguments about the so-called impact of this, or the problems that will be confronted in regard to the remission of sentences that was provided to people.
The Minister is a hands-on Minister. She wastes no time when something happens in the centres - any problems or whatever - in coming to the portfolio committee and even to Parliament to make a statement to indicate what has gone wrong and to try to find solutions to correct it. [Interjections.] If you are looking for a perfect society, unblemished, without a problem, thou shalt not find it, not in this world! [Applause.]
I must thank the department at the outset, and I agree with some of the comments made here, especially regarding those officials who are dedicated and who are willing to see that people leaving the centres are properly skilled and adequately rehabilitated. I want to thank them. I would like to tell those who are not playing their part to pull up their socks. There should be no free lunches! If we take the trappings, we must be prepared to draw the coach and do the work. We have several nongovernmental organisations and civil society that are involved. We have the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services and we have the National Council on Correctional Services. All of these organisations deserve our thanks and gratitude for their unflinching commitment to seeing that the conditions of our inmates are humane and that they leave the service one day as better human beings. [Applause.]
I have a problem that I need to put on the table. In terms of the White Paper, the responsibility for this is as follows: It is a societal problem and society should help to reintegrate the people who leave these centres. However, society must be made up not only of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster but of all state departments. Whether it is the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, that of Labour, or that of Trade and Industry, the whole bang shoot should be involved in helping the inmates who leave the service, after having served their time, to be reintegrated into society. The JCPS cluster on its own cannot do that.
As far as activity is concerned, we are lagging behind in regard to providing sufficient workshops and sufficient skills in the centres. This is in order to correct people and skill them - to which the chairperson alluded earlier in his speech. This is an area to which we need to pay attention. At some stage or the other in the portfolio committee meetings, we discussed the possibility of something that exists in other parts of the world, especially in the United States. A utility company is formed, and the articles of inmates, who produce durable articles, are then sold and marketed through the utility. At the end of the day there is a stipend for those inmates, so that on the day when they are released there is at least something they can take back with them.
There is another side; an interesting side. There is a certain young lady. A deep love affair had contributed to her acting and doing something that was totally untoward, and I agree with the hon Selfe that she needs to pay for her deeds. Whatever happened in her life, while paying for her deeds she took the trouble to qualify herself by acquiring another degree, and she is apparently at the top of her class in prison. She already had a degree in education, and she is making her services available for the betterment of other inmates in prison. [Applause.] I say that there are such model prisoners and they need to be congratulated and given the necessary support to do better.
I also need to put the following on record. I am sorry for this particular individual, aged 26.
Sy is oud genoeg om dalk my kleinkind te wees ... [She is young enough to have been my grandchild ...]
... and is from the same prison as the inmate I referred to. This was her comment: "I am not excited about leaving prison, because I don't know what is waiting out there, but when the time comes I will have to be ready."
Now, what I am saying, hon members, is that this debate - actually, this Budget Vote - is extremely important. It can either help to make people, or it can help to break them, so that they would start to reoffend. Therefore, I would like to refer briefly to some of the things that hon members have said here today.
The Minister asked what role society played. I want to place on record my deep gratitude, not only to all of those I have mentioned but also to those I have seen who visit these facilities over weekends and spend their leisure time providing pastoral counselling to the many inmates in our service. I say South Africa owes you a great deal for the role that you are trying to play to make better human beings of those who are there.
The hon Selfe said that he would like to see the Minister leading. I think she is doing a good job! [Applause.] What we need to do is to give her the necessary support and backup, so that at the end of this chain we can see better human beings coming out of the service. [Applause.]
The challenge in our country is to create a climate where people do not find it necessary to offend. However, as it has been since time immemorial, these things are going to happen, but that does not mean we must lose hope.
The hon Selfe said that a blanket remission was sending the wrong message. The hon Selfe is a good friend of mine. I love you all, everybody here in the House! I love you all! [Laughter.] I have no enemies - we only have political competitors. To the hon Selfe, for whom I have a great deal of respect, I would like to say that this was not a blanket remission. It was a remission in respect of certain categories of crime. [Interjections.] Six months? Fine, sir. If any one of us had to lose six months of our lives, what would we lose? A great deal! [Interjections.] Schabir Shaik is not the issue here. The issue is the remission, where approximately 12 000 inmates will benefit. What we should be doing here is to do ...