Address by honourable Thobile Mhlahlo, Eastern Cape MEC for Safety, Liaison, Roads and Transport at the Department of Correctional Services breakfast with the business community in Queenstown Sports Complex

It is indeed a great privilege for me to address this occasion, which seeks to build a lifelong relationship between government, particularly the Department of Correctional Services, and the private sector.

Both the National Crime Prevention Strategy, which was adopted by government in 1996 and the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa lay a solid foundation for a variety of stakeholders, including business, to work with government in partnership for effective rehabilitation of offenders in this country.

The Department of Correctional Services can only succeed in its mandate if we all come together to share its responsibility and emerge with lasting solutions to its challenges of rehabilitating our people.

We are all aware of some of the reasons that lead to people to commit crime. Poverty and unemployment are some of those reasons.

The province of the Eastern Cape is in a process of implementing its Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy, which promotes a multi-agency collaboration against crime.

It is then incumbent upon us as government and business community to create the necessary conditions that will assist us in emancipating our people from these social ills through opening up opportunities for the economic development of rehabilitated offenders to ensure their successful reintegration back into society.

This can assist in ensuring that the cycle of crime is broken and enable the province to produce citizens that contribute to community safety and development.

Last year, the Department of Safety and Liaison held a Provincial Summit on Youth Against Crime for Peace, where young people of the Eastern Cape urged government to engage the private sector to assist in deepening the participation of their peers, who have been in conflict with the law, in development programmes.

Since the advent of democracy, we have witnessed a policy shift on the approach and methods of dealing with people, who have been in conflict with the law and now we have reached a stage of ensuring sustainable rehabilitation process of offenders outside the facilities of the Department of Correctional Services.

This process largely requires business support through giving former inmates a second chance in life by employing them, thus demonstration of trust and confidence, because they have already been trained inside.

The Department of Safety and Liaison, has already started to set an example by purchasing furniture for all district offices from the inmates through the Department of Correctional Services at a cost of R250 000.

This is in line with our vision of "Growth and Quality of Life through Safety and Security", as this initiative would boost the confidence of inmates and encourage them to use their time productively.

I have personally visited the St Albans Correctional Centre in Port Elizabeth earlier this year, where I came across furniture and products of good quality. I would like to appeal to the business community to emulate this good example and consider the Department of Correctional Services as a supplier of good quality products.

In conclusion, I believe that working together, we can be able to deal with the challenges that continue to confront our society and provide space and opportunities for those, who have been in conflict with the law, for a better future and a better society.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Safety and Liaison, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
15 October 2007