Date: 06/04/2004
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: B Skosana: Address to members of the Diplomatic Corps
REMARKS BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN SKOSANA, MP, TO MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AT KIEVITS KROON COUNTRY ESTATE, Pretoria, 6 April 2004
Programme Director
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps
Your Excellency, Dr Abdella Alzubedi
Commissioner Linda Mti
Your Excellencies
Members of the Diplomatic Community here present
Representatives of other sister Governments
Departments present
Management and staff of Correctional Services
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Your Excellencies, we in Correctional Services feel deeply honoured to host you this morning to share with you this rare but memorable occasion and be able to brief you on certain aspects of South Africa's prison system. We have so often been told that ours is the most difficult occupation within the Criminal Justice System of our country, and majority of our members and officials have endured this with the commitment and fortitude necessary to contribute toward Justice and Good Governance in our country, but others have succumbed in the face of hardship and temptation.
Your Excellencies, at the same time I wish to concede that yourselves, individually and collectively as diplomatists (to use an earlier version of your profession) are charged with the most complex field and science of International Relations, both in theory and practice.
Consider the doctrine, "my country right or wrong", which continues to make a powerful appeal to millions of people in many countries, stimulating and invoking virtues of self-sacrifice and inter-state conflicts. Or consider the precepts in "The Prince of Niccolo" where it is said that Prince Machiavelli warned against the dangers of a weak Government. "You must know that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is that of men, the second of beasts, but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second."
Or consider your own direct and indirect experiences with President Woodrow Wilson's principle of open diplomacy, where he was insisting that there should be "open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any kind". But in reality he could not adhere to this as he took Clemenceau of France and Lloyd George of Britain behind closed doors to hammer out in secrecy, the Treaty of Versailles (Harold Nicholson - Diplomacy, 1939). Henry Kissinger referred to this period as "the new face of diplomacy".
In this year in which we South Africans are celebrating 10 years of democracy, we as a Department of Correctional Services are also proud of the gains that we have made in transforming the old Department of Prisons into a correctional service that is appropriate to a democracy. While we still face enormous challenges, I can confidently say that the strategic policy direction is consolidated, and institutional capacity is being established to deliver an effective rehabilitation focused correctional system in South Africa.
This year South Africa is celebrating ten years of breaking away, exiting almost 400 years of colonial and apartheid rule. Away from governance characterised by white domination, land dispossession, oppression, repression and callous racial discriminatory laws, which left the African majority significantly illiterate, poor and underdeveloped.
This should be a celebration of, among other things, ten years of a people's struggle for social, cultural and economic emancipation. However, attempts to shed physical and psychological remnants of our inhuman history continue to meet with resistance which at the same time frustrates efforts of bringing about genuine national reconciliation and nation building, so aptly pronounced on by Dr Nelson Mandela and many prominent political leaders in our country.
The developments in the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa must be understood within the context of the past political, economic and social environment in our country, and how the new Government responded to these developments was informed by this history as well as the national agenda of institutional transformation and provision of security, justice and peace.
The majority of our people in prison are from historically disadvantaged and poor communities and they are therefore among those that constitute the Second Economy.
In his State of the Nation address in February this year, President Thabo Mbeki described the Second Economy as constituting "structural manifestation of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation in our country." He further urged that "we must therefore move vigorously to implement all programmes on which we have agreed to ensure that we extricate all our people from social conditions that spell loss of human dignity." As Government's policy of transformation and transparency deepens in our prisons, the culture and sub-cultures embedded for decades have begun to surface. Some are positive and others send a chill down the spine of a normal human being.
Having said that, I believe it is incumbent upon us to observe that the complexity of the correctional system will continue to make it difficult for us to achieve satisfactory levels of prison reform. Prison reform is difficult but not impossible.
You must be aware through recent media reports as well as through direct enquiries from the Department that we are considering the development of policy guidelines to enable the Government to enter into Prisoner Transfer agreements with other countries.
This policy advocates for the return of South African Prisoners sentenced in foreign countries to enable them to complete their sentences closer to their families and societies they will be released to.
It affects both South African nationals incarcerated in foreign countries as well as foreigners who are accommodated in our correctional facilities.
These policy guidelines are going through the normal Government processes, and we would welcome your views before we can put the guidelines for final consideration and approval by the President and Cabinet.
Your Excellencies, you are aware that my Department does not impact directly on my country's foreign policy except through our Criminal Justice System. Hence this morning among other things, we also want to sound your opinions on the matter of foreign nationals in our custody and those South African nationals in foreign prisons.
We have also realised over the past ten years that there is a lot that we, as a Department, must do regarding prisoners of foreign origin who are in our custody as well as South Africans imprisoned in other countries.
Up to now non-South African prisoners are treated in the same way as ordinary South Africans. They undergo the same rehabilitation programmes and are incarcerated in the district where they were sentenced. There is nothing in our policies that addresses the special needs of this category of prisoners.
One of the lessons we learnt during the first decade of our freedom is that South Africans imprisoned in other countries are, to a limited extent, our responsibility. In liaison with our counterparts in other countries, we can make interventions that can make their rehabilitation process a little bit smoother.
We took the initiative to convene a meeting of SADC Ministers responsible for Correctional/Prison Services in Johannesburg in July 2003. At the end of the meeting the Johannesburg Declaration, which, in our view heralds a new beginning for corrections in the region, was adopted. The Declaration notes that prisons are about crime fighting, reducing recidivism, and building a safer society. The Ministers committed SADC to pioneer new strategic thinking in the running of prisons as rehabilitation centres. The Ministers also agreed on a range of areas of co-operation like human resource development, exchange of security information, penal reform, and the implementation of the minimum standards in line with international and multilateral declarations.
Our main shortcoming in this regard is that we do not have policy guidelines to deal with prisoners of foreign origin in our facilities as well our compatriots imprisoned in other countries.
We took a decision towards the end of last year to close these policy gaps. A team of drafters is currently working on a policy that will guide the transfer of prisoners between South Africa and other countries, and we envisage it will be operational by the end of the current financial year.
The policy will address our peculiar South African needs as well as stick to the norms and standards as stipulated by the United Nations and other similar fora. After Cabinet has approved the policy we will enter into bilateral discussions with different countries in order to give effect to the policy.
We believe, as a Department, that members of the diplomatic community have a vital role to play to make rehabilitation of their nationals in our facilities easier. One of these is for you to raise with us whatever concerns that such offenders may have raised with you. Let's work out a feasible solution together.
We are aware that people of different backgrounds sometimes see things differently and may also need to be treated differently under certain circumstances. Our correctional officials may not be familiar with conditions in many countries around the world and as such their approach to individual foreign offenders may not be a suitable one. Your intervention in such circumstances may be crucial.
Although South Africa's foreign policy is based on the United Nations General Assembly's fundamental principles governing relations between and among states, we want to see Africa playing a significant role within the continent and globally. It is only a developed and prosperous Africa that can truly and successfully face up to challenges of the global economy and society. However, prominent African leaders, philosophers, writers and intellectuals believe that Africa will prosper and develop when it believes in itself and not when Africa rejects itself.
In conclusion, allow me to express my most sincere appreciation to all those who have found time within your very busy schedules to be with us today as we tackle this issue which is of great concern to all of us. My hope and belief is that we shall have very fruitful deliberations so that our gathering shall have been worth our while. I would like to hand over to officials of my Department who will elaborate on some of those activities in which we are engaged in treatment of offenders.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
6 April 2004
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: B Skosana: Address to members of the Diplomatic Corps
REMARKS BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN SKOSANA, MP, TO MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AT KIEVITS KROON COUNTRY ESTATE, Pretoria, 6 April 2004
Programme Director
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps
Your Excellency, Dr Abdella Alzubedi
Commissioner Linda Mti
Your Excellencies
Members of the Diplomatic Community here present
Representatives of other sister Governments
Departments present
Management and staff of Correctional Services
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Your Excellencies, we in Correctional Services feel deeply honoured to host you this morning to share with you this rare but memorable occasion and be able to brief you on certain aspects of South Africa's prison system. We have so often been told that ours is the most difficult occupation within the Criminal Justice System of our country, and majority of our members and officials have endured this with the commitment and fortitude necessary to contribute toward Justice and Good Governance in our country, but others have succumbed in the face of hardship and temptation.
Your Excellencies, at the same time I wish to concede that yourselves, individually and collectively as diplomatists (to use an earlier version of your profession) are charged with the most complex field and science of International Relations, both in theory and practice.
Consider the doctrine, "my country right or wrong", which continues to make a powerful appeal to millions of people in many countries, stimulating and invoking virtues of self-sacrifice and inter-state conflicts. Or consider the precepts in "The Prince of Niccolo" where it is said that Prince Machiavelli warned against the dangers of a weak Government. "You must know that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is that of men, the second of beasts, but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second."
Or consider your own direct and indirect experiences with President Woodrow Wilson's principle of open diplomacy, where he was insisting that there should be "open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any kind". But in reality he could not adhere to this as he took Clemenceau of France and Lloyd George of Britain behind closed doors to hammer out in secrecy, the Treaty of Versailles (Harold Nicholson - Diplomacy, 1939). Henry Kissinger referred to this period as "the new face of diplomacy".
In this year in which we South Africans are celebrating 10 years of democracy, we as a Department of Correctional Services are also proud of the gains that we have made in transforming the old Department of Prisons into a correctional service that is appropriate to a democracy. While we still face enormous challenges, I can confidently say that the strategic policy direction is consolidated, and institutional capacity is being established to deliver an effective rehabilitation focused correctional system in South Africa.
This year South Africa is celebrating ten years of breaking away, exiting almost 400 years of colonial and apartheid rule. Away from governance characterised by white domination, land dispossession, oppression, repression and callous racial discriminatory laws, which left the African majority significantly illiterate, poor and underdeveloped.
This should be a celebration of, among other things, ten years of a people's struggle for social, cultural and economic emancipation. However, attempts to shed physical and psychological remnants of our inhuman history continue to meet with resistance which at the same time frustrates efforts of bringing about genuine national reconciliation and nation building, so aptly pronounced on by Dr Nelson Mandela and many prominent political leaders in our country.
The developments in the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa must be understood within the context of the past political, economic and social environment in our country, and how the new Government responded to these developments was informed by this history as well as the national agenda of institutional transformation and provision of security, justice and peace.
The majority of our people in prison are from historically disadvantaged and poor communities and they are therefore among those that constitute the Second Economy.
In his State of the Nation address in February this year, President Thabo Mbeki described the Second Economy as constituting "structural manifestation of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation in our country." He further urged that "we must therefore move vigorously to implement all programmes on which we have agreed to ensure that we extricate all our people from social conditions that spell loss of human dignity." As Government's policy of transformation and transparency deepens in our prisons, the culture and sub-cultures embedded for decades have begun to surface. Some are positive and others send a chill down the spine of a normal human being.
Having said that, I believe it is incumbent upon us to observe that the complexity of the correctional system will continue to make it difficult for us to achieve satisfactory levels of prison reform. Prison reform is difficult but not impossible.
You must be aware through recent media reports as well as through direct enquiries from the Department that we are considering the development of policy guidelines to enable the Government to enter into Prisoner Transfer agreements with other countries.
This policy advocates for the return of South African Prisoners sentenced in foreign countries to enable them to complete their sentences closer to their families and societies they will be released to.
It affects both South African nationals incarcerated in foreign countries as well as foreigners who are accommodated in our correctional facilities.
These policy guidelines are going through the normal Government processes, and we would welcome your views before we can put the guidelines for final consideration and approval by the President and Cabinet.
Your Excellencies, you are aware that my Department does not impact directly on my country's foreign policy except through our Criminal Justice System. Hence this morning among other things, we also want to sound your opinions on the matter of foreign nationals in our custody and those South African nationals in foreign prisons.
We have also realised over the past ten years that there is a lot that we, as a Department, must do regarding prisoners of foreign origin who are in our custody as well as South Africans imprisoned in other countries.
Up to now non-South African prisoners are treated in the same way as ordinary South Africans. They undergo the same rehabilitation programmes and are incarcerated in the district where they were sentenced. There is nothing in our policies that addresses the special needs of this category of prisoners.
One of the lessons we learnt during the first decade of our freedom is that South Africans imprisoned in other countries are, to a limited extent, our responsibility. In liaison with our counterparts in other countries, we can make interventions that can make their rehabilitation process a little bit smoother.
We took the initiative to convene a meeting of SADC Ministers responsible for Correctional/Prison Services in Johannesburg in July 2003. At the end of the meeting the Johannesburg Declaration, which, in our view heralds a new beginning for corrections in the region, was adopted. The Declaration notes that prisons are about crime fighting, reducing recidivism, and building a safer society. The Ministers committed SADC to pioneer new strategic thinking in the running of prisons as rehabilitation centres. The Ministers also agreed on a range of areas of co-operation like human resource development, exchange of security information, penal reform, and the implementation of the minimum standards in line with international and multilateral declarations.
Our main shortcoming in this regard is that we do not have policy guidelines to deal with prisoners of foreign origin in our facilities as well our compatriots imprisoned in other countries.
We took a decision towards the end of last year to close these policy gaps. A team of drafters is currently working on a policy that will guide the transfer of prisoners between South Africa and other countries, and we envisage it will be operational by the end of the current financial year.
The policy will address our peculiar South African needs as well as stick to the norms and standards as stipulated by the United Nations and other similar fora. After Cabinet has approved the policy we will enter into bilateral discussions with different countries in order to give effect to the policy.
We believe, as a Department, that members of the diplomatic community have a vital role to play to make rehabilitation of their nationals in our facilities easier. One of these is for you to raise with us whatever concerns that such offenders may have raised with you. Let's work out a feasible solution together.
We are aware that people of different backgrounds sometimes see things differently and may also need to be treated differently under certain circumstances. Our correctional officials may not be familiar with conditions in many countries around the world and as such their approach to individual foreign offenders may not be a suitable one. Your intervention in such circumstances may be crucial.
Although South Africa's foreign policy is based on the United Nations General Assembly's fundamental principles governing relations between and among states, we want to see Africa playing a significant role within the continent and globally. It is only a developed and prosperous Africa that can truly and successfully face up to challenges of the global economy and society. However, prominent African leaders, philosophers, writers and intellectuals believe that Africa will prosper and develop when it believes in itself and not when Africa rejects itself.
In conclusion, allow me to express my most sincere appreciation to all those who have found time within your very busy schedules to be with us today as we tackle this issue which is of great concern to all of us. My hope and belief is that we shall have very fruitful deliberations so that our gathering shall have been worth our while. I would like to hand over to officials of my Department who will elaborate on some of those activities in which we are engaged in treatment of offenders.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
6 April 2004
Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
