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Minister, sadly you have inherited a department which is in crisis. The Department of Correctional Services continues to receive qualified audits from the Auditor General, corruption is systemic throughout the Department, sexual violence and assaults in our Correctional Centres are rife, staff morale is at an all time low and a management team lives in denial.

Whenever this department appears before the Select Committee on Public Accounts or the Auditor General, its management team come up with all the excuses in the book. And every year we are told about the ‘turnaround' strategies and how things will be improved.

However, minister it is already written in the history books of this country that the Department of Correctional Services has since democratisation of South Africa, continued to slip deeper into the darkness of corruption and mismanagement.

Just read the reports of Judge Jali.

I ask from you, how can you expect this parliament, which is tasked with the responsibility to represent the interest of all our people, to approve that an amount of R36 million per day must be spent on prisons whilst we have so many hungry children, uncared sick people and millions of unemployed who is not getting any assistance from us.

Minister, are you really convinced that these large amounts of money should be allocated to this department, considering their poor track record and their lack of financial control? There is a saying, that if you throw money at a problem, all you will get is a better resourced problem. This is exactly what Correctional Services has become -- a better resourced problem. With their budget having gone up from R3.5 billion in 1997/1998 to more than R13 billion this financial year. This is a significant increase by any standard.

Correctional Services has failed to address any of the problems which existed in the Department 10 years ago and still continue to exist. Instead the Department continue to waste taxpayers' money on private catering and nutrition services for inmates, big screen television sets in cells and handing out security contracts under very suspicious circumstances.

Last week, the media reported on the significant drop in the level of self-sufficiency of the Department. The Democratic Alliance believes that offenders should work so that they can contribute to their boarding and lodging. This will prevent a situation where some inmates are locked up for up to 23 hours a day in their cells while others are aimlessly wandering in the corridors of their centres.

Idleness, Chairperson, is the reason for the high level of gang activity in our centres. Get them to be busy in a constructive way, contributing to their own up keep and in the process rehabilitating them. This will help with reducing the levels of re-offending among former inmates.

Minister, if I may offer you some advice: Please surround yourself with competent people and ensure that you are kept well informed about the day to day running of the Department. Be careful of those "sunflower" managers who are always in agreement of what you say or who spend all their energy in denying that any of these problems exist. Pay correctional officials at centre level what they deserve, a decent living wage for the dangerous work they do.

Any person who has had any dealings with Correctional Services will attest to the fact that this Department still has very many competent and committed members of staff - people who are committed to their work and who continue to perform their work under the most difficult conditions. Give them recognition, Minister and make them feel that their commitment is recognised. They don't necessarily want monetary reward, just plain simple recognition.

Chairperson, allow me to conclude by placing emphasis on the need that exist within Correctional Services to get their financial management in order. Do this by appointing a permanent Chief Financial Officer, who can get financial systems in place. The ripple effect of this chairperson will hopefully be a Department of Correctional Services with an excellent and world class theory and practice.

I thank you.