Address by the Minister of Correctional Services Honourable B Balfour at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) during the 2007/08 Budget Vote Debate, National Assembly

Chairperson of the NCOP
Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP
Cabinet colleagues
Chairpersons and members of the Select Committee
Members of Parliament
Distinguished guests
The National Commissioner of Correctional Services in absentia
Senior Managers of Correctional Services here present
Ladies and gentlemen

This month, the nation is celebrating the invaluable contribution of young people in the liberation of the country. The young lions of 1976 braved the brutality and the repression of the time to make their mark in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Many of our honourable members of Parliament were part of that generation of young people whose contribution will always be cherished by all of us. Their determination to succeed against odds will always inspire us to ensure a better life for all in carrying out our constitutional and legal mandate as Correctional Services.

In their honour, we have committed ourselves to development, integrity, recognition of human dignity, efficiency, accountability, justice, security and equity as values that will guide all our endeavours as the department which was a bastion of the repressive apartheid regime. Honourable Chairperson, we approach our assignment with the pledge never to dishonour the cause of freedom, development and democracy for which many laid down their lives for.

We carry out our assignment determined never to fail this cause. We remain inspired contributing in building a just, peaceful and safe society, by enforcing court imposed sentences, detaining inmates in safe custody whilst maintaining their human dignity, developing their sense of social responsibility and promoting the general development of all inmates and persons subject to community corrections. I am happy with the progress we are making cumulatively over the past few years in this regard despite huge challenges.

Honourable chairperson, it is important to give an account of what we achieved during the previous financial year which may have been drowned by a wave of public discontent about government's efforts to fight crime. We do understand some peoples' anger, fear and emotional reaction to among others a violent crime spike witnessed last year and well published in the media albeit in a distorted manner. Indeed individual experiences are indeed traumatic and we share their pain, however the national objective reality reflects a reduction in major categories of crime. Accompanying these outbursts, fears and anger we observed the resurgence of a more conservative punitive paradigm in the public discourse and increased pressure on Correctional Services. Overwhelming evidence from best international research projects shows that the "lock and throw the key away" perspective of dealing with crime only compounds the situation by breeding more crime and repeat offending.

We should all learn to appreciate that the visionary South Africans made a profound statement of policy as far back as 1955 when the Freedom Charter was adopted, saying "Imprisonment shall aim at re-education, not vengeance".
We do acknowledge that some of the crime perpetrators are becoming increasingly violent and aggressive and therefore deserve incarceration to ensure public safety and security. We may not have scientific proof as no research has been done nationally in this regard, but we are convinced that the tide is turning as we improve our interventions to break the cycle of crime through correcting the offending behaviour, rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders.

Honourable Chairperson, with an allocation of R10,74 billion for the 2007/08 financial year the department houses in its 240 facilities 158 859 offenders, 44 5079 of whom are awaiting trial detainees with women constituting only 2,1% of the total offender population (Department of Correctional Services Information Management System (IMS) January 2007). This massive operation is a labour intensive exercise currently resourced with over 41 000 officials nationally. Rehabilitation programmes are carried out in factories, workshops, classrooms, farms as well as within communities as an integral part of blending our functions with mainstream government programmes of fighting poverty and under development.

In many respects we are able to produce enough furniture, tools as well as food like pork, eggs, milk, bread and vegetables to cover our institutional needs while in cases of over supply we donate food to local communities as a contribution in fighting poverty. Thousands of families across the country can bear testimony to this.

One of our many pockets of excellence is the Durban Westville school that produces the best matric results which included six distinctions by a juvenile offender, Sifiso Zulu. In a true spirit of Operation Masibambisane the South African Institute for Chartered Accounts offender him a bursary to study towards a BCom degree at the University of the Cape Town on his release on parole in January 2007. We owe it to the young lions of 1976 and the future generations to intervene now through correction, rehabilitation and social re-integration of many young offenders who are in conflict with the law, many of whom indeed deserve a second chance.

Foremost in our minds and hearts is the creation of an enabling environment to effective correction and rehabilitation. Militating against this goal is overcrowding which is an international phenomenon, scarce skills that go beyond the department, low levels of societal ownership of corrections responsibility and a need for greater integration of the work of the criminal justice system. I am happy to announce that in all these facets, we are making commendable progress.

Our eight-pronged strategy to deal with overcrowding has begun to pay dividends as over the past six years we:
* consistently reduced overcrowding by 4,77% per year with the past two years (2005/06) reaching 15,72% and 10% reduction rates respectively
* improved bed spaces by 14,45% through renovations, limited expansions and re-commissioning
* reduced awaiting trial detainees by 22% through great integration of the whole criminal justice system and progressively optimising use of legal instruments at our disposal.

The fact that we accommodate 38% more offenders than the available bed spaces remains unacceptable and we remain resolute in addressing this challenge.

The National Council on Correctional Services (NCCS) led by Judge Siraj Desai and the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons led by Judge Nathan Erasmus have been pivotal in ensuring a continuous improvement in Correctional Services and in strengthening integrated governance. I take my hat off these two outstanding Judges and their teams for their incisive and visionary interventions, without which we would have been poorer in service delivery. Today our cooperation with judicial officials, in particular magistrates, has reached new heights especially after a road show that covered at least four provinces where we shared knowledge, experience and strategies for addressing challenges facing the corrections system of South Africa.

Honourable Chairperson, the increasing violent and aggressive profile of our inmate population poses a real challenge as they occupy more bed spaces for much longer. This trends cuts across women, youth, children and adult male offenders and raises significant policy and strategy questions not only to Correctional Services but to the whole criminal justice system. With mandatory sentences the category of offenders serving 10 to 15 years increased by over 12% over the last six years, from 45% in 2000 to 57% of the total offender population in 2006.

A parole audit commissioned in 2006 found over 19 584 backlog cases across the country. We intensified the work of Case Management Committees (CMCs) and the Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards (CSPB) and registered a 49,16% reduction to 9 957 cases. We will keep track of these developments and institute quarterly reviews to ensure that no backlogs are accumulated again. To further strengthen victim and community participation in the Correctional Supervision and Parole System, we started recruiting from communities' deputy chairpersons of CSPB to replace work currently done by officials. This process could not be completed as the response rates of eminent persons suitable for the task was low. In that regard we seek the support of members of the NCOP in particular the Select Committee to ensure that people of high standing and integrity are appointed to fill this gap.

The Cabinet legkotla of 2006 directed Correctional Services to lead the project of re-engineering the Management of Awaiting Trial Detention (MATD) system in South Africa. An inter-departmental task team composed of representatives of Justice and Constitutional Development, South African Police Services, Home Affairs and Social Development is driving the programme. We have also established an embryonic Chief Directorate and contracted a project manager to drive the development of appropriate policies and procedures, identification of correctional centres for use as pilot Remand Detention Facilities (RDFs) in each region, as well as the development and implementation of a synchronised cluster programme of action aimed at meeting short to long term strategic needs in the management of awaiting trial detainees.

Honourable Chairperson, Correctional Services is engaging a higher gear in service delivery. I am happy to formally announce to this house that we have a new National Commissioner, Mr Vernie Petersen, who brings with him a wealth of experience, knowledge and wisdom about Correctional Services and our partners. He had been our Regional Commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as well as our Corporate Services Chief Deputy Commissioner. He has a long history of activism for social justice and development. I have absolute confidence in his abilities as a leader, a manager, an agent of transformation and a firm decision maker. I wish to assure you that Mr Petersen will pick up the reigns of Comrade Mti and smoothly proceed from where he left. His appointment is a show of confidence in the current executive management put together by Mr Mti.

Part of gearing the department for heighten service delivery is the seven-day working week model we have adopted. I am happy again to say the target we set of 8 311 additional employees were surpassed. The last group of trainees are currently at our two training colleges of Correctional Services: Zonderwater and Kroonstad. In addition to thousands of new recruits, we created 752 new positions as part of the ongoing alignment of the structure with the requirements of the White Paper.

We have also made strides in numerous facets of building the requisite institutional capacity which include:

* The adoption of an integrated human resources strategy that seeks to ensure the recruitment and retention of scarce skills such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses, educationists and psychologists where vacancy rates even reach 58%.
* Instituting a new dispensation for health workers as a scarce skill was finalised with an injection of R17 million for starting its implementation this financial year.
* The successful implementation of relationship building by objectives model entered into with Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the Public Service Association which has begun taking labour relation beyond bread and butter issues.
* We started with the refinement of jobs for purposes of ensuring appropriate recognition of the more modern and dynamic function of correctional officials that includes counselling, coaching, development and protection of offenders while also facilitating community and family contact for sustainable social re-integration on release. We dare not fail on this because our mission of ensuring that every correctional official is a rehabilitator would be a pie in the sky.
* The implementation of the second phase of the interim promotion arrangement negotiated with the POPCRU as well as the Public Service Association (PSA) was successful with 1 857 officials in salary levels five and six benefiting.
* We trained 91% of our 165 Senior Management Service members on change management, 933 frontline officials on living the principles of Batho Pele people first, as well as 600 middle managers, 230 of who have already received certificates for completing a management development programme run in partnership with Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

We increased our staff complement from 36 311 in the 2005/06 financial year to 41 406 in 2006/07 with a target of reaching 45 674 by the end of 2009-10 financial year. This represents a 25,79% increase and a provision of additional 9 363 jobs within five years.

Conscious of our obligation to contribute to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), we engaged 500 unemployed graduates for gaining critical experience for their marketability last year and also engaged 1 500 more in January 2007.

I believe this house and our nation can see that I am not just upbeat about this department's performance for nothing. We can longer behave like fishes that lay a thousand eggs and keep quiet. I promise you that this year we will be a hen that lays one egg and makes sufficient noise for the world to know. During the course of this year we will launch a massive campaign of promoting a positive image of this department.

Security remains central in carrying out our mandate. We are indeed riding the wave of the security technology with the installation of biometric access control system with closed circuit television monitors in 66 correctional centres inclusive of 36 centres of excellence officially launched in July 2006.

We have allocated R300 million over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the rollout of the system. In addition, security fencing with closed circuit television monitors and motion detectors is being implemented in 47 high risk facilities nationally at a cost of nearly half a billion rand. We have allocated an annualised budget increase of 194,6% for equipment over the MTEF period.

We are succeeding in improving security with escapes being reduced to a new historic low number since the attainment of freedom. Only 93 offenders escaped in the 2006/07 financial year from a high as 281 in the 2002/03 financial year, while official on offender assaults went down from 633 in 2001 to 473 in 2006. Every case of escape and assault is one more too much and therefore the current levels need to be further reduced.

One of the top priorities of Correctional Services over the medium term expenditure framework is the construction of new generation prisons that are suitable for rehabilitation. We had announced eight new centres. Of these, the construction of the Kimberly Correctional Centre is progressing well with a significant contribution to the local economy and job creation. Five other centres which include East London in Eastern Cape, Nigel in Gauteng, Klerksdorp in North West, Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal and Paarl in the Western Cape will be constructed using a Public Private Partnership model. The decision followed a report of a transaction adviser which was discussed with the National Treasury and the Department of Public Works. We will now proceed to the next phase of appointing project managers with National Treasury considering footing the bill of the project managers to drive the programme with the construction expected to kick off in June 2008. A decision on Leeuwkop is awaiting a viability study while the Polokwane centre is frozen following challenge with securing land.

Honourable Chairperson, the government has made it absolutely clear that ensuring sustainable development, protection the country's citizenry and ensuring a better life for all can never be the government's sole responsibility. Many South Africans and their formations are progressively making corrections a societal responsibility as enduring partnerships are emerging. In addition to traditional partners like National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders. (Nicro), Khulisa and South African National Council On Alcoholism And Drug Dependence (SANCA), new relations have emerged including the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Business Against Crime (BAC), Open Society Foundation (OSF), Moral Regeneration Movement (RMR) and academic institutions like Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

With these partnerships we strive to ensure that the department is able to:

* Use information and communication technology (ICT) to provide quality services on a 24/7/365 bases for all beneficiaries with CSIR assisting.
* Sharpen institutional capacity to ensure better service delivery and improved public confidence in Correctional Services and the criminal justice system with the assistance of Business against Crime (BAC).
* Ensure accountability in terms of the implementation of the Correctional Services Act, Act 111 of 1998 with OSF assisting with among others funding.
* A 1 million signature campaign aimed at public awareness and mobilisation to partake in making corrections a societal responsibility assisted by the MRM.

In the same spirit of ensuring public ownership of our cause, we initiated an Operation Masibambisane campaign. The campaign seeks to create and sustain platforms for co-operation with local municipalities, provincial governments, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector, faith-based organisations (FBOs) and other civil society structures. Towards this end we met with the South African Local Government Association, traditional leadership structures, ordinary business people and professionals who all responded with great enthusiasm to the call for a helping hand. Some of the manifestations include medical doctors and social workers who have volunteered to assist us in the Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga region.

We should never flinch from telling that a country's correctional system can only be as good as its country, society, communities and families. Therefore a national call sounded by the President for the reconstruction of the soul should be said over and over again. We plan to intensify our role within communities, blending our correction, rehabilitation, restorative justice and social reintegration role with key programmes of fighting poverty, under development, skills shortages and unemployment. This is what we are progressively doing when we get involved in the construction of the Athlone House of Safety in Paarl, construction of low income houses in Mbekweni, churches in Gugulethu, renovation of old age homes in Limpopo, adoption and refurbishing of poor schools in Eastern Cape. Let me invite the honourable members of the NCOP to visit these sites across the country and add their voice.

The elimination of fraud and corruption is one of the key success indicators in our endeavours to transform Correctional Services into an open and accountable institution. To deal with this scourge, Correctional Services has partnered with the Special Investigation Unit (SIU Cobra) and the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) and has succeeded in uncovering medical aid corruption resulting in the recovery of R22 million in the previous financial year. Emanating from the Jali Commission recommendations, the Scorpions arrested 120 persons as part of investigations into medical aid fraud amounting to R45 million.

A departmental task team with regional representatives was established to accelerate the implementation of the disciplinary recommendations of the Jali Commission that were tabled last year. Over 100 officials were investigated by the Departmental Investigation Unit (DIU). The Code Enforcement Unit concluded 60 hearings and registered a commendable conviction rate of 92%. All Jali Commission related cases are expected to be finalised by November 2007 in terms of internal disciplinary processes.

Fighting fraud is a complex operation, and to close all gaps we also trained 828 managers and officials on ethics across the country including 20 trainers who will drive the rollout of the training to reach the rest of the officials in Correctional Services. Our Compliance Improvement Plan, which focuses on improved internal controls will also result in a smaller window of opportunity for those hell bent on committing fraud and enable us more easily to detect such fraud. We repeat the call do not play the corruption and fraud ball with officials help stamp out corruption for a safer and a more secure South Africa.

The department has adopted six priorities and five key projects that we commit to deliver on effectively over the next two years and beyond. These actually seek to address ongoing challenges that include non-compliance with government's regulatory framework, violence and incidents of aggression within our facilities, overcrowding, and delays in the construction of facilities, escapes, implementation of the White Paper as well as poor public understanding of Correctional Services.

The identified six priority areas of focus are underpinned by our service delivery improvement plan that entails five projects. These include improving communication of our strategic direction, creating enabling environment for rehabilitation, enhancing good governance and compliance, improving our integrated planning and performance reporting, enhancing our external partnership and expediting the social re-integration programme. The service delivery improvement plan that underpins these priorities contains are:
* phased implementation of the social re-integration action plan
* expediting the building and upgrading of facilities
* development of an appropriate remand detention management system
* implementation of the seven-day working week and the job refinement projects
* phasing in of the implementation of the offender rehabilitation path.

In essence these are not entirely new projects, but an affirmation that the strategic decisions taken earlier are correct and therefore focus should be on implementation. These will inform the allocation of resources over the remaining years of the third democratic government and will indeed take Correctional Services to a higher bar in delivering services.
Conclusion

Definitely, South Africans have begun to appreciate corrections as part of the mainstream in societal transformation. We will focus our energies on ensuring that the pledges we have made since 2004 are realised, while also building a formidable national partnership to correct, rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders back into society. We will endeavour to ensure that every important role player is appropriately informed of the department's vision, mission, objectives and interventions as well as challenges around which societal energies should be mobilised to contribute in building a caring correctional system that effectively for all to enjoy a great quality of life in a safer and more secure South Africa.

I thank you.