Keynote address of Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour at the National Stakeholders Conference held at Centurion Conference in Pretoria

Programme Director
National Commissioner and your Executive Management
Honoured delegates of our valued stakeholders
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered here today and tomorrow to celebrate and appreciate the contributions made by individual role-players to advance the cause of corrections while building a new base for taking Corrections to a higher bar.

I am quite happy to see good representation of our key partners in the corrections fraternity in South Africa. I am informed you represent a wide range of players including our partners within the Criminal Justice System and Social Sector Cluster, as well as independent formations that are helping us expand the reach and impact of broader societal interventions.

We are indeed greatful that you have responded to the call to join us in renewing our pledge to build a national partnership for effective security, correction of the offending behaviour, rehabilitation and social re-integration of offenders. Our total investment as a nation in advancing the cause of corrections runs into billions of rands over and above what there is a set aside in the fiscus for the Department of Correctional Services in particular. Yet as a nation we cannot unambiguously quantify those investments, conduct a cost benefit analysis and determine where collectively we should "scratch" to make the biggest difference.

As you will see during various presentations of key role-players we have made great strides since the attainment of democracy towards making our dreams true, in making our ambitions a reality and in turning good intentions into actions that bring the desired results. We have one of the most progressive policy frameworks in the world today, security is improving, more and more offenders are participating in rehabilitation and other programmes some of which are run by stakeholders, ex-offenders are increasingly engaged in anti-crime campaigns while integration of work within the criminal justice system is taking a centre stage, to mention but a few.

I believe I speak on behalf of most of your when I say, challenges facing the whole corrections fraternity remain quite daunting. Correctional services still faces serious overcrowding, serious security breaches that include unnatural deaths and escapes, a resilient organisational culture that militates against our new ideals and questions of effectiveness of our programmes. We saw some players in the academic sector facing protests by students of correctional science, some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are struggling with access to resources to expand their scope and reach while the system overall is facing increasing pressure from the citizenry clamouring for more punitive approach to corrections in the light of crime becoming more and more violent in the country. Under the circumstances a threat of wanting to resort to expediency at the expense of sustained interventions is real.

One thing certain is that correctional services alone can never resolve the challenges facing the corrections fraternity and throwing money to the problem will definitely not work. Government is fully cognisant of this and has embarked on a public mobilisation drive in order to mount an unprecedented national anti-crime campaign. Given that issues of crime are among the top three issues ordinary South Africans are pre-occupied with, government has adopted a policy of mainstreaming efforts aimed at defeating crime through establishment of Community Safety Forums.

In addition, all stops will be pulled to ensure that community based structures like school governing bodies discuss and implement anti-crime strategies in their respective localities. I think a message is clear; it cannot be business as usual. We must look for new and innovative ways of improving our collective reach and transcending of spatial development disparities in delivery of correctional services. We must together build national consciousness and integrity that will progressively close in on unethical behaviour, fraud, corruption and criminality. We are here to renew our pledge and build an enduring national partnership to ensure safe custody, correction, rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders for a safer and a more secure South Africa.

I have asked the National Commissioner, his executive management and the rest of correctional services personnel to ensure that we finish the last 15 months of the third democratic government very strong. Now we need all stakeholders to positively and constructively engage us in order to take correctional services delivery to a higher bar. The greatest deterrent against crime is belief that the criminal justice system is effective not just in crime detection, prosecutions and convictions, but in incarceration of offenders. I believe together we are on a positive development path that is set to make waves in the global corrections system.

We must individually and collectively defeat crime and ensure a South Africa that is safer and more secured for all to enjoy a great quality of life. This is a goal of the people of South Africa to be embraced by all. Every person, every community or every organisation needs to ask the question, what is it that we need to do to meaningfully assist in fighting crime and making corrections work better in this country.

We have had major meetings with stakeholders before but this conference to ensure that we replace erratic, silo and incident driven interactions with institutionalised and outcomes driven engagements with stakeholders. We need to identify gaps, opportunities, threats and collective strengths so that we can be united in action to defeat crime and build a formidable correctional system for of South Africa. We need to lead by example continentally and internationally and to achieve that every ounce of energy South Africans have must be fully harnessed. I am therefore looking forward to some form of institutional arrangements that will spearhead the establishment of a corrections platform of South Africa.

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
5 February 2008