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Date : 13/08/2004
Source: Ministry of Correctional Services
Title: N Balfour: Handing over of computers to Kroonstad Women's Correctional Centre


ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BMN BALFOUR, MP, AT THE HANDING OVER OF COMPUTERS DONATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS TO THE KROONSTAD WOMEN'S CORRECTIONAL CENTRE, 13 August 2004

Programme Director Mr KD Bouwer
Minister of Communications Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri
Honourable Premier of Free State Ms Frances Marshoff
Deputy Minister Ms Cheryl Gillwald
The Mayor of Kroonstad Mr Lebona
Commissioner of DCS Mr Linda Mti
Acing DG of DoC Ms Phumelele Nzimande
Regional Commissioner and Management of the region
Invited guests Staff and inmates of Kroonstad
Ladies and Gentlemen

If you are a person with a superstitious nature, then Friday 13 is not supposed to be a good day for you. It will normally be a day when such persons chose to remain indoors to avoid anything-untoward happening to him or her. Here in Kroonstad, you have decided to turn this on its head and to make this a day of opening your doors to us, in addition to a day of celebration.

It is an occasion when we can honour those who gave life to us. It is an occasion when we will take delivery of a special gift to the women of this Correctional Centre from the Department of Communications and it is also an occasion when, yes, we can join the rest of the world in celebrating the start of the greatest sporting event - the Olympics in Athens! Surely, that is enough reason to ignore our little superstitions and instead celebrate with others.

I want to thank you for the warm welcome extended to us, especially in this month dedicated to the women of our country. It is significant that we have with us this morning, the Minister of Communications, the Premier and the Deputy Minister, all women who are committed to bringing about change in the lives of all South Africans.

It is really ironic that we have to dedicate a month of the year to women when, in fact, women dedicate 12 months of the year to our people and our country. I say it without fear of contradiction that our liberation as a people would never have been possible in 1994 without the struggles and sacrifices of the women of South Africa. Even today, it is our grandmothers, our mothers, our sisters and our daughters who constitute the backbone of our society. And I am especially pleased to learn that we celebrated Women's Day at this Correctional Centre yesterday.

The main focus of our visit here today is to share in the joy of made possible by the Minister of Communications and her Department who have so kindly decided to make life for offenders in Kroonstad a bit more bearable by providing them with computers for use at this Centre. This gesture is made more significant by the fact that it takes place just days after we have celebrated National Women's Day.

It also gives us the opportunity to place the focus on two special categories of offenders, namely, women and youth offenders. I have taken up the portfolio as Minister at an exciting time of change in Correctional Services.

We are arguably one of the departments facing some of the greatest challenges in delivering on government's mandate of a better life for all South Africans. We have a situation where the inmate population of our correctional centres is well beyond our capacity; where we have to provide safety, security and human dignity as part of the process of rehabilitating offenders with the ultimate aim of their reintegration into their families, their communities and society.

It might appear to be a daunting task to some but with such interventions as we have here today by another government department, there is great hope that our integrated approach of dealing with challenges facing us, gives us as a country the best chance of success.

I very briefly want to touch on youth and juveniles within correctional centres. We have too many young people incarcerated in prisons. It is unacceptable that more than 70, 000 men and women in the prime of their youth are in correctional centres for a range of offences. It is unacceptable that more than 11, 000 boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 years are in prison. It is unacceptable that 7, 450 of this total of boys and girls are 18 years of age. It is unacceptable that we do not pay greater attention to addressing this in a manner that will give these young people a further chance in life.

Of course, there are those amongst these numbers who have committed some of the most heinous crimes possible. Of course, they need to pay their debt to society. Of course, we need to assist them in correcting their offending behaviour and putting in place programmes that will give them the chance to rehabilitate themselves. We will always protect the broader interests of society against such offenders.

But in their ranks there are also un-sentenced detainees and sentenced offenders incarcerated for minor or petty offences and those who cannot afford bail. Surely, we do not want them to become repeat offenders. Surely, we do not want to deny them a chance of rehabilitation.

They are sons and daughters of mothers, who in most cases, care dearly for their offspring. We need to reach out to them. We need to ensure that we assist them in becoming law-abiding citizens of this country. We need to ensure that they too can, given a second chance, become caring members of our communities.

So too, with women incarcerated in our correctional centres. Kroonstad is one example of such a correctional centre. I have been visiting centres throughout the country and have been deeply touched by the circumstances and plight of women in prison. I have seen mothers with babies, grandmothers, young girls, professional women, and ordinary South African women. No different to ourselves or those who pass us in the streets every day.

They have offended and have a debt to pay to society. They concede that they have done wrong. They know that they must correct their offending behaviour. But they reach out to us and plead for help. They plead for a second chance. They plead for their children with them and those outside. These are pleas of mothers that cannot be ignored. These are pleas that accept that they have a debt to pay but urge us not to let their offspring also pay for offences committed by their mothers.

As a caring society, we cannot ignore these pleas. We need to stretch out our hands and say that we hear their cries; that we are at hand to assist them in wanting to bring about change in their lives.

It is an established fact that the majority of sentenced women are serving short-term sentences. Many of them are mothers and while the nature of their offences vary and can at times also be of a serious violent nature, in many cases, they are incarcerated for economic offences. In many instances, there are not necessarily direct victims of the crime perpetrated. Fraud, shoplifting, petty theft and even the use of drugs are some examples of offences. It is my belief that such offenders have arguably the greater potential for being rehabilitated through a method of alternative sentencing.

I am not for one minute suggesting that incarceration should be abandoned as a method of sentencing but I want to argue that our sentencing regime must create the space for greater and more practical alternatives. As part of the ongoing development of our criminal justice system, we could possibly explore to a greater extent an extended utilisation of sentencing such as community-based corrections, community correctional supervision and even reparations to victims.

Of course, this must be considered within the context of our responsibility of corrections being at the core of rehabilitation.

This gesture today by the Department of Communications is one way in which we can advance rehabilitation programmes for women. We need to be going beyond programmes that are mainly directed at skilling women in manual labour. We need to be creating conditions where creativity is encouraged, where learning is directed at women, equipping themselves to take their rightful place in the formal economy of our country and to develop towards financial independence.

With regard to offenders who have their children with them in correctional centres, we are striving towards the ideal of providing "mother and child units" with separate sleeping accommodation for mothers and children, including the provision of cr

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