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Date : 29/11/2004
Source: Ministry of Correctional Services
Title: Balfour: Kokstad Management Area members


Address by the Minister of correctional Services, Mr BMN Balfour, to the members of the Kokstad management area on Monday, 29 November 2004

Programme Director
Honourable Member of Parliament Mr Geoff Doidge
National Commissioner Linda Mti
Regional Office Representatives
Area Commissioner Dumisane Makhaye
Heads of Correctional Centres
Management and Members of Kokstad
Management Area

I am going to do something unusual by starting to address you by quoting some passages taken from books written by people on prisons and prison life. These people have not had the benefit of being in the employ of Correctional Services as you have. They visited correctional centres at various times and through those visits and interviews with people, they felt sufficiently equipped to comment on Correctional Services. The books are a reflection of what they perceive to be fact. Quite often such perceptions in print become the standards by which we are measured by the public. And quite often it is just that – perceptions and nothing else – but it takes on the status of facts and often reflect negatively on us. Let me read the quotations to you.

“Prison is the great networking centre of criminal South Africa.”

“I don’t think the prison is a thing that makes society more safe. It makes society more vulnerable.”

“It makes one ask why some men and women join the prison service. Probably many of them cannot find employment anywhere else!”

I have chosen these three quotations because I believe that in my interaction with you as correctional officials at Kokstad, it will create the opportunity for our engagement to focus on the realities that you have to face in this management area. I do not come here claiming to know very much about your daily lives in the workplace. I do not come here to put you under any type of undue pressure.

My visit to you is more to gain first hand information on the nature of the management area and secondly, to establish what makes you different to other correctional centres, if there are indeed any differences. Let us unpack those quotations and then look at the relevance or otherwise of it to us here in Kokstad. The one writer describes prisons as a networking centre of crime in the country. What is the implication of this? Does it suggest that as correctional officials, either directly or indirectly, we aid and abet, instead of fight crime? Is our core business not fighting crime through corrections and rehabilitation? Is our core business not protecting society against crime?

The second quotation claims that society is not made safe through prisons but rather more vulnerable. The implication is that we are failing in our core business and thus failing to contribute to the safety of the public. The other writer is more damning of us in her claim that we work for Correctional Services because we cannot find a job anywhere else.

Now these perceptions reach the public and they become fact in the minds of people. It reflects negatively on us as correctional officials but also as individuals. It reinforces the myth that all correctional officials are stupid, lazy, ill-disciplined, corrupt and untrustworthy. It creates a negative environment around us. It makes people show disrespect for good men and women in the uniform of Correctional Services. It touches our self-esteem and our worthiness as people.

Now, we can be dismissive of this and say that we do not care about what people think of us. We can also agree with what the writers are claiming. Or we can try to understand why these writers are making such claims.

Let us look at Kokstad as our point of departure. The reasoning behind the establishment of Kokstad was probably very different to the reasons for building other correctional centres in, let’s say, urban communities. In Correctional Services’ circles Kokstad is equated with toughness; with ultra maximum security; with high risk inmates. The physical environment of Kokstad is equated with extremely tight physical barriers and control relating to procedures for security and care, consultation, visits, amenities and contact between inmates on the one hand, and officials and inmates, on the other hand. It is high security levels aimed at reducing attempts at escape to very difficult or potentially virtually improbable. But at the same time, there are no certainties. C-Max at Pretoria is one such example.

Even I have publicly suggested that Kokstad should become the home of those inmates who constantly create security challenges at other Correctional Centres. So, in many respects, Kokstad stands out from other Correctional Centres and this is not only due to the high degree of technology that is used in the management of the institution. Is Kokstad thus a tacit admission that our work in Correctional Services does not necessarily provide for the need for safety and security of the public? I do not believe that. I believe that Kokstad and other Correctional Centres are serious about their core business and committed to the ideals and objectives of the department as set out in legislation and our White Paper on Corrections. I believe that DCS consists of thousands of good, dedicated men and women who are intent on developing their careers in the service. I believe that correctional officials are often not given the credit, acknowledgement and recognition that they deserve for the work that they do. It is such irresponsible claims as made by the writers of the books that I have quoted that perpetuate the wrong perceptions that the public have of Correctional Services. But then I must also add that there are individual members who feed such perceptions through their actions and deeds. And there are very likely such individuals amongst you.

Let me say that I believe that Kokstad is in a singularly excellent position to turn such perceptions around. I believe that Kokstad has the potential to become a model of the new policy direction that we are pursuing in Correctional Services. Despite the challenges that you face in Kokstad and I concede that there are many, I am still of the view that you can be at the forefront of actions that will contribute towards turning the image of DCS around. You have so much going for you.

This is a new institution with relatively young members blended with experience in management. You have an advantage in training over other members in that you had to be specially equipped to deal with some unique circumstances of safety and security. You are not yet fully operational and thus do not have the challenge of overcrowding as other centres. You can literally apply the concept of new beginnings. Of course, there are challenges – not least amongst them being that for most of you, Kokstad is not your place of origin. You had to adapt and probably still are, to local circumstances. You needed to secure accommodation, fit into the community life in Kokstad, find a reasonable social life for yourselves as young people and then also manage offenders who are certainly not ideal rehabilitative material.

Perhaps many of you are not finding it easy here and as a result become uptight and even disenchanted with your circumstances. This then manifests itself in various ways. It results in a fall in discipline. It probably creates a degree of recklessness and a devil-may-care attitude. Perhaps you even want to become militant and challenge the authority of others. Your frustrations could so easily go over to neglect of duties; low morale; wanting to opt out; dissatisfaction with your current position.

You want to make headway up the career path and you see no light ahead of you. You start questioning whether Correctional Services is really for you. It could contribute to you losing focus and even just going through the motions of your responsibilities. You then start identifying the perceived causes of your frustrations in the work place – unsympathetic managers, managers who favour others above you, poor working conditions, unsatisfactory salary packages, poor medical aid, cuts in overtime, lack of promotion opportunities, and the list can go on.

You then make yourself believe that you have sufficient cause to justify irregular actions such as neglecting some of your duties, showing disrespect to seniors, ignoring legitimate and reasonable instructions and even worse, justifying corruption and maladministration. At that stage, without realizing it, you are on the downward slide. You are falling into the trap described by the writers that I referred to. You are admitting, through your actions, that perhaps it is true that DCS was never really a career option for you. You become one of the many who give the rest of DCS a bad name. You are on the road to becoming another rotten apple who can never rise above being mediocre. In a literal sense, you are slipping on the road to becoming not dissimilar to the offenders that we are employed to care for.

You are admitting that the DCS truck is not for you. You do not want to be part of the driving or navigation team of DCS. You are a passenger not willing to pay your dues and likely to fall off long before you reach your destination. In other words, you are a loser. You would have given up before your real journey has begun. You cannot last the pace and will end up amongst the also-rans.

I am sure that that is not the path you envisaged for yourself when you started here. I am sure that you do not want those writers to have the satisfaction of being proved correct in their claims of prisons and Correctional Services. You still have the time to turn things around if you are one of those who started slipping. You can still become the ideal correctional official and still hold dear your aspirations and hopes. While militancy is good and well and perhaps gives you some popularity as someone willing to challenge leadership and authority, the true revolutionary is one who understands the landscape on which he operates. He distinguishes between populism and correctness of decisions. He is not led astray by false promises and undertakings. And he sees when he becomes the cannon fodder of those with other intentions and agendas.

I believe that there is a future for each one of you in Correctional Services. I believe that if you deserve to be promoted, it will happen. I believe that Kokstad presents opportunity for you. You are already noted for a number of positives here in Kokstad. Amongst them is the implementation of the three-meal system. While others are finding excuses not to implement it, you have been innovative in its application.

You have a management team with vast experience but who can also learn from your fresh ideas. Engage them positively. Let your exchanges with management be a learning experience for you and for them. Recognition of your worth and abilities will then come naturally. And you would have proved the critics of DCS wrong.

Go well over the festive season and know that Kokstad will always remain in the public eye because of the special qualities and circumstances that prevail here.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Correctional Services
29 November 2004
Source: Department of Correctional Services

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