Date: 27/11/2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: Skosana: 16 Days of Activism & World AIDS Day
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN M SKOSANA MP, AT THE DEPARTMENT'S NATIONAL WORLD AIDS DAY COMMEMORATION FOR 2003, Durban-Westville Correctional Centre, Thursday, 27 November 2003
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Lionel Mtshali
MEC for Health for KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize
Mayor for Ethekwini Municipality, Mr Obed Mlaba
Members of the Legislature
Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Linda Mti
Management and Staff of Correctional Services Distinguished guests from other departments and community organisations
Ladies and gentlemen
It was only earlier this week when government officially launched its campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children at a ceremony led by the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma, at Galeshewe in the Northern Cape.
It must be recognised that this campaign is not just to put a moratorium on violence against women and children during the 16 days, but it is to permanently remove this scourge from society. It means the provision of social assistance to women and children in need, the provision of specialised domestic violence legislation and a whole lot of other mechanisms aimed at protecting vulnerable groups.
The sixteen-day period gives us an opportunity as a collective to concentrate on devising ways and means of tackling the problem of gender-based and child-directed violence and to re-commit ourselves to eradicating this scourge.
There needs to be a collective response and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, business, the religious community and organised labour are all potential partners in finding a solution. The campaign also allows us to build on the increased public vigilance and general awareness that has been generated over the last few years.
Over a period of the 16 themed days and by linking gender-based violence to issues such as health, disability, poverty and vulnerability to risk we are sensitising the public to the very many faces of violence and its negative impact on the development of women and children.
Our campaign will emphasise that all forms of violence, whether perpetrated in the public or private sphere, are a violation of human rights and human dignity. The campaign provides every South African with a unique opportunity for introspection. We hope that it will result in a new resolve to change attitudes and behaviours.
It is well known that the majority of cases of violence against women and children take place in the sanctity of the home and by people that are acquainted with the survivors. As a government we cannot afford to place a police officer in every home.
Therefore, the best way to police this problem is to engender in each citizen a sensitivity to that nature of the problem and a resolve to enlist, as quickly as possible, the support of the law-enforcement agencies and civil society support groups.
The South African Police Service, the Department of Social Development and the Department of Correctional Services will re-commit to servicing the victims and survivors of violence with sensitivity and the necessary determination to punish the perpetrators of violence in the home, in communities and the workplace.
You should be aware of the latest statistics that show that women in this country constitute the majority of the population, and are therefore mostly affected by the advent of HIV/AIDS about which our department has dedicated today to raise awareness.
It is therefore a great pleasure for me to address this gathering today on this very significant occasion of the commemoration of the fifteenth World AIDS Day, which was first commemorated in 1988.
It is also on the eve of ten years of the celebration of democracy in our country thus necessitating a reflection on the progress our department has made on HIV/AIDS issues over the past years. I can confidently say that we have made immense progress even though there is yet much more to be done.
This is despite the numerous problems which beset us, some of which have been summarised by Braithwaite, Hammett and Mayberry in their publication titled "Prisons and AIDS: A Public Health Challenge" when they wrote:
"In addition to the already daunting problems posed by severe crowding and fiscal stringency, today's correctional administrators and health care professionals working in prisons and jails must deal with an increasingly ill, troubled, and "graying" inmate population. HIV/AIDS is but one facet of a complex of health and psychosocial problems that are becoming increasingly common among inmates, including tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and mental illness."
In the early years we implemented a policy of compulsory testing of all employees, and infected prisoners were separated from non-infected prisoners.
Over the course of time this policy was abolished because compulsory testing is a flagrant violation of international law as well as violation of the precepts propounded by the World Health Organisation. We then adopted the current more progressive policy, which is in keeping with the requirements of the Constitution and international conventions on the humane treatment of offenders. It calls for non-discrimination against persons infected with HIV. In addition, infected prisoners have been integrated within the broader prison population.
However, today the call in Parliament, usually from the opposition, is clamouring for compulsory testing of prisoners and for the separation of infected prisoners.
Before I continue with the enumeration of our impressive progress record, let me dwell on this subject of compulsory testing of prisoners for a moment. The moral and ethical issues aside, let us concentrate on the practicalities of such a suggestion. Because of such a scientific concept as the "window period", nobody who tests negative is actually guaranteed to be negative.
This would mean that every prisoner who is found to be negative would have to be kept in isolation from all other prisoners for a period of three months from the first test so that a second test could confirm that negativity. The purpose of this isolation would be to ensure that there is no possibility of transmission of the virus in the interim.
Should a prisoner be found to be positive, then additional facilities must be provided to separate him or her as suggested. This would mean such a prisoner would have to be isolated from fellow positive prisoners to prevent any possibility of re-infection or super infection.
The logistics and probable astronomical cost of implementing such a policy are mind-boggling. Of course, such a policy would be in total contradiction to our new road of rehabilitation, as well as a violation of the World Health Organisation guidelines on HIV infection and AIDS in prisons, international law governing the treatment of prisoners and laws meant for the protection of human rights. This is besides the horrors of stigmatisation, ostracism, discrimination and violence against AIDS sufferers.
To return to the progress we have made, a policy for prisoners was approved in October 2002, which is comprehensive and in keeping with the standards of the World Health Organisation and South Africa's Five Year Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS. The policy is being implemented in the department even as we speak with the major thrust being on prevention, treatment, care, surveillance, monitoring and research, support and the recognition of and respect for human rights.
The department has a fairly comprehensive programme of education and awareness. All prisoners are exposed to awareness programmes upon admission and regularly thereafter in sessions in the different prison sections. Each prison has its own programme of implementation. Posters, pamphlets, brochures and videos are available to prisoners and personnel for information purposes.
The department has purchased training posters for each prison, which can be repeatedly utilised with groups. These programmes are implemented by nurses, social workers and psychologists who also provide counselling services and other care and support services as may be required including liaison with the external environment.
We have a proper infrastructure in place to deal with HIV/AIDS. A directorate has been established and the director's post is in the process of being filled. There is a deputy and assistant director at the national level and regional coordinators at assistant director level. Most recently, we began to identify focal persons at prison and area commissioner's level to ensure that operational level issues are smoothly implemented.
The department has successfully implemented partnerships with various community-based organisations, national departments and donor organisations. In 2002, a joint project with the British Council and the Ugandan Ministry of Prisons saw a pilot project implemented in this very prison. It was a unique project in that prisoners and members of staff were trained together in HIV/AIDS related skills.
The level of understanding of the one group for the other increased tremendously and the consequence of this was increased cooperation between prisoners and members in addressing issues around HIV/AIDS. This project is in the process of being rolled out to the rest of the province.
The department is also working in partnership with many NGOs, far too numerous to mention in this speech, in implementing programmes for prisoners. Some of the programmes are for instance a peer education project among 18 to 25 year old inmates. The project has been completed in Limpopo and Gauteng and in centres in the North West, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. This project would have covered all centres around the country by June 2004. Sterling work has been undertaken in Johannesburg among other prisons in incorporating peer education, peer counselling and has the training of prisoners in care giving of terminally ill prisoners.
The department is currently drafting a policy to implement prison-based care as a complementary service to health care services in prison. Home-based care is one of the strategies employed by the Department of Health to deal with the excessive demand for services.
The prison system as a microcosm of society is no different in facing such demands. Thus, training prisoners as volunteer caregivers is one part of the package of care and support that would be available to terminally ill prisoners.
This policy is being consulted widely. It is also in keeping with the core business of the department, which is the rehabilitation of offenders. The department proposes that encouraging people to volunteer in answer to the call of the President for "Letsema" is a way of ensuring that prisoners develop and enact positive and socially acceptable feelings for their fellow man.
The department is also in the process of aligning its workplace policy with the minimum standards for government workplace programmes. Services to members of staff are available through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and the medical aid programme. The department participates actively in inter-governmental activities. We are represented on the national Interdepartmental Committee for HIV/AIDS and on the South African Civil Military Alliance against HIV/AIDS.
The challenges that the department faces after ten years of democracy remain the secrecy and stigma associated with the epidemic. While there are structures in place and programmes are being implemented, even as people are dying in large numbers, there is still a rigid reluctance for people to come forward and admit that they are infected.
Vast numbers of people remain uninformed through a reluctance to ask questions or seek information from the sources available. The fear to be associated in any way with the epidemic is a matter of priority, which the department has to deal with a matter in the future.
The department recognises that the current Health Budget of R49.7 million is not enough and that more resources need to be pumped into the AIDS agenda if the progress made is to be sustained and encouraged to continue. The roll out of anti-retroviral treatment promised by government will be implemented within prisons as well. An increased number of nurses will be needed to administer the medication and to clinically monitor the efficacy of the intervention and any adverse effects that may result.
Medical practitioners will have to provide services that will entail prescribing medication and clinical monitoring and surveillance. Health care workers will need to be trained on the management of patients on anti retroviral treatment, and counselling.
The training will be addressed at nursing staff, social workers and psychologists as well as custodial officials. The department's nutrition services will have to be aligned with the Integrated Nutrition Programme to ensure that the nutritional needs of prisoners are met as the regimen prescribes that some medication has to be taken with meals. The cost of this exercise needs to be analysed and projected for the future years.
Continuous efforts must be undertaken to find new ways to arrest the spread of this disease as well as to better care for those infected. The best way to look at the problem is to look at how James W Curran who is Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in the United States put it in the foreword to Braithwaite, Hammett and Mayberry's book:
"But perhaps the greatest challenge for public health and correctional health practitioners will involve collaboration on policy formulation and policy implementation responsive to both health promotion and security issues within penal systems. There exists a continuing need for increased research and development in correctional institutions as it relates to effective, culturally sensitive approaches to HIV education and prevention, and to issues regarding transmission while incarcerated."
The theme for this year's commemoration is "Khomanani: Caring Together". Developing social responsibility is one aspect of our core business. This is a way in which we can make this social responsibility a practical example.
This day is meant to bring messages of compassion, hope, solidarity, understanding and, most important, that a life of quality and quantity is possible. I want to call upon each and every one of us, prisoner and member of staff alike, to make it our business to become affected by HIV/AIDS.
We must be cognisant of the fact that HIV/AIDS is not a gender disease affecting men or women differently. HIV/AIDS knows no colour as it affects people of all races in the same way. It is not an ethnic disease, but it is a human tragedy, which affects everyone equally.
This is not an epidemic for health professionals only or for infected people. It is an epidemic that calls upon us as human beings to show care and concern for our fellow man as never before. Let us not want to know who is positively infected and who is not. Let us assume that all of us are infected and take the necessary care and precautions. Most importantly let us care in the most effective way we can.
God bless Correctional Services.
God bless South Africa.
God bless you all.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services, 27 November 2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: Skosana: 16 Days of Activism & World AIDS Day
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN M SKOSANA MP, AT THE DEPARTMENT'S NATIONAL WORLD AIDS DAY COMMEMORATION FOR 2003, Durban-Westville Correctional Centre, Thursday, 27 November 2003
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Lionel Mtshali
MEC for Health for KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize
Mayor for Ethekwini Municipality, Mr Obed Mlaba
Members of the Legislature
Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Linda Mti
Management and Staff of Correctional Services Distinguished guests from other departments and community organisations
Ladies and gentlemen
It was only earlier this week when government officially launched its campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children at a ceremony led by the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma, at Galeshewe in the Northern Cape.
It must be recognised that this campaign is not just to put a moratorium on violence against women and children during the 16 days, but it is to permanently remove this scourge from society. It means the provision of social assistance to women and children in need, the provision of specialised domestic violence legislation and a whole lot of other mechanisms aimed at protecting vulnerable groups.
The sixteen-day period gives us an opportunity as a collective to concentrate on devising ways and means of tackling the problem of gender-based and child-directed violence and to re-commit ourselves to eradicating this scourge.
There needs to be a collective response and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, business, the religious community and organised labour are all potential partners in finding a solution. The campaign also allows us to build on the increased public vigilance and general awareness that has been generated over the last few years.
Over a period of the 16 themed days and by linking gender-based violence to issues such as health, disability, poverty and vulnerability to risk we are sensitising the public to the very many faces of violence and its negative impact on the development of women and children.
Our campaign will emphasise that all forms of violence, whether perpetrated in the public or private sphere, are a violation of human rights and human dignity. The campaign provides every South African with a unique opportunity for introspection. We hope that it will result in a new resolve to change attitudes and behaviours.
It is well known that the majority of cases of violence against women and children take place in the sanctity of the home and by people that are acquainted with the survivors. As a government we cannot afford to place a police officer in every home.
Therefore, the best way to police this problem is to engender in each citizen a sensitivity to that nature of the problem and a resolve to enlist, as quickly as possible, the support of the law-enforcement agencies and civil society support groups.
The South African Police Service, the Department of Social Development and the Department of Correctional Services will re-commit to servicing the victims and survivors of violence with sensitivity and the necessary determination to punish the perpetrators of violence in the home, in communities and the workplace.
You should be aware of the latest statistics that show that women in this country constitute the majority of the population, and are therefore mostly affected by the advent of HIV/AIDS about which our department has dedicated today to raise awareness.
It is therefore a great pleasure for me to address this gathering today on this very significant occasion of the commemoration of the fifteenth World AIDS Day, which was first commemorated in 1988.
It is also on the eve of ten years of the celebration of democracy in our country thus necessitating a reflection on the progress our department has made on HIV/AIDS issues over the past years. I can confidently say that we have made immense progress even though there is yet much more to be done.
This is despite the numerous problems which beset us, some of which have been summarised by Braithwaite, Hammett and Mayberry in their publication titled "Prisons and AIDS: A Public Health Challenge" when they wrote:
"In addition to the already daunting problems posed by severe crowding and fiscal stringency, today's correctional administrators and health care professionals working in prisons and jails must deal with an increasingly ill, troubled, and "graying" inmate population. HIV/AIDS is but one facet of a complex of health and psychosocial problems that are becoming increasingly common among inmates, including tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and mental illness."
In the early years we implemented a policy of compulsory testing of all employees, and infected prisoners were separated from non-infected prisoners.
Over the course of time this policy was abolished because compulsory testing is a flagrant violation of international law as well as violation of the precepts propounded by the World Health Organisation. We then adopted the current more progressive policy, which is in keeping with the requirements of the Constitution and international conventions on the humane treatment of offenders. It calls for non-discrimination against persons infected with HIV. In addition, infected prisoners have been integrated within the broader prison population.
However, today the call in Parliament, usually from the opposition, is clamouring for compulsory testing of prisoners and for the separation of infected prisoners.
Before I continue with the enumeration of our impressive progress record, let me dwell on this subject of compulsory testing of prisoners for a moment. The moral and ethical issues aside, let us concentrate on the practicalities of such a suggestion. Because of such a scientific concept as the "window period", nobody who tests negative is actually guaranteed to be negative.
This would mean that every prisoner who is found to be negative would have to be kept in isolation from all other prisoners for a period of three months from the first test so that a second test could confirm that negativity. The purpose of this isolation would be to ensure that there is no possibility of transmission of the virus in the interim.
Should a prisoner be found to be positive, then additional facilities must be provided to separate him or her as suggested. This would mean such a prisoner would have to be isolated from fellow positive prisoners to prevent any possibility of re-infection or super infection.
The logistics and probable astronomical cost of implementing such a policy are mind-boggling. Of course, such a policy would be in total contradiction to our new road of rehabilitation, as well as a violation of the World Health Organisation guidelines on HIV infection and AIDS in prisons, international law governing the treatment of prisoners and laws meant for the protection of human rights. This is besides the horrors of stigmatisation, ostracism, discrimination and violence against AIDS sufferers.
To return to the progress we have made, a policy for prisoners was approved in October 2002, which is comprehensive and in keeping with the standards of the World Health Organisation and South Africa's Five Year Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS. The policy is being implemented in the department even as we speak with the major thrust being on prevention, treatment, care, surveillance, monitoring and research, support and the recognition of and respect for human rights.
The department has a fairly comprehensive programme of education and awareness. All prisoners are exposed to awareness programmes upon admission and regularly thereafter in sessions in the different prison sections. Each prison has its own programme of implementation. Posters, pamphlets, brochures and videos are available to prisoners and personnel for information purposes.
The department has purchased training posters for each prison, which can be repeatedly utilised with groups. These programmes are implemented by nurses, social workers and psychologists who also provide counselling services and other care and support services as may be required including liaison with the external environment.
We have a proper infrastructure in place to deal with HIV/AIDS. A directorate has been established and the director's post is in the process of being filled. There is a deputy and assistant director at the national level and regional coordinators at assistant director level. Most recently, we began to identify focal persons at prison and area commissioner's level to ensure that operational level issues are smoothly implemented.
The department has successfully implemented partnerships with various community-based organisations, national departments and donor organisations. In 2002, a joint project with the British Council and the Ugandan Ministry of Prisons saw a pilot project implemented in this very prison. It was a unique project in that prisoners and members of staff were trained together in HIV/AIDS related skills.
The level of understanding of the one group for the other increased tremendously and the consequence of this was increased cooperation between prisoners and members in addressing issues around HIV/AIDS. This project is in the process of being rolled out to the rest of the province.
The department is also working in partnership with many NGOs, far too numerous to mention in this speech, in implementing programmes for prisoners. Some of the programmes are for instance a peer education project among 18 to 25 year old inmates. The project has been completed in Limpopo and Gauteng and in centres in the North West, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. This project would have covered all centres around the country by June 2004. Sterling work has been undertaken in Johannesburg among other prisons in incorporating peer education, peer counselling and has the training of prisoners in care giving of terminally ill prisoners.
The department is currently drafting a policy to implement prison-based care as a complementary service to health care services in prison. Home-based care is one of the strategies employed by the Department of Health to deal with the excessive demand for services.
The prison system as a microcosm of society is no different in facing such demands. Thus, training prisoners as volunteer caregivers is one part of the package of care and support that would be available to terminally ill prisoners.
This policy is being consulted widely. It is also in keeping with the core business of the department, which is the rehabilitation of offenders. The department proposes that encouraging people to volunteer in answer to the call of the President for "Letsema" is a way of ensuring that prisoners develop and enact positive and socially acceptable feelings for their fellow man.
The department is also in the process of aligning its workplace policy with the minimum standards for government workplace programmes. Services to members of staff are available through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and the medical aid programme. The department participates actively in inter-governmental activities. We are represented on the national Interdepartmental Committee for HIV/AIDS and on the South African Civil Military Alliance against HIV/AIDS.
The challenges that the department faces after ten years of democracy remain the secrecy and stigma associated with the epidemic. While there are structures in place and programmes are being implemented, even as people are dying in large numbers, there is still a rigid reluctance for people to come forward and admit that they are infected.
Vast numbers of people remain uninformed through a reluctance to ask questions or seek information from the sources available. The fear to be associated in any way with the epidemic is a matter of priority, which the department has to deal with a matter in the future.
The department recognises that the current Health Budget of R49.7 million is not enough and that more resources need to be pumped into the AIDS agenda if the progress made is to be sustained and encouraged to continue. The roll out of anti-retroviral treatment promised by government will be implemented within prisons as well. An increased number of nurses will be needed to administer the medication and to clinically monitor the efficacy of the intervention and any adverse effects that may result.
Medical practitioners will have to provide services that will entail prescribing medication and clinical monitoring and surveillance. Health care workers will need to be trained on the management of patients on anti retroviral treatment, and counselling.
The training will be addressed at nursing staff, social workers and psychologists as well as custodial officials. The department's nutrition services will have to be aligned with the Integrated Nutrition Programme to ensure that the nutritional needs of prisoners are met as the regimen prescribes that some medication has to be taken with meals. The cost of this exercise needs to be analysed and projected for the future years.
Continuous efforts must be undertaken to find new ways to arrest the spread of this disease as well as to better care for those infected. The best way to look at the problem is to look at how James W Curran who is Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in the United States put it in the foreword to Braithwaite, Hammett and Mayberry's book:
"But perhaps the greatest challenge for public health and correctional health practitioners will involve collaboration on policy formulation and policy implementation responsive to both health promotion and security issues within penal systems. There exists a continuing need for increased research and development in correctional institutions as it relates to effective, culturally sensitive approaches to HIV education and prevention, and to issues regarding transmission while incarcerated."
The theme for this year's commemoration is "Khomanani: Caring Together". Developing social responsibility is one aspect of our core business. This is a way in which we can make this social responsibility a practical example.
This day is meant to bring messages of compassion, hope, solidarity, understanding and, most important, that a life of quality and quantity is possible. I want to call upon each and every one of us, prisoner and member of staff alike, to make it our business to become affected by HIV/AIDS.
We must be cognisant of the fact that HIV/AIDS is not a gender disease affecting men or women differently. HIV/AIDS knows no colour as it affects people of all races in the same way. It is not an ethnic disease, but it is a human tragedy, which affects everyone equally.
This is not an epidemic for health professionals only or for infected people. It is an epidemic that calls upon us as human beings to show care and concern for our fellow man as never before. Let us not want to know who is positively infected and who is not. Let us assume that all of us are infected and take the necessary care and precautions. Most importantly let us care in the most effective way we can.
God bless Correctional Services.
God bless South Africa.
God bless you all.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services, 27 November 2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)
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