Cape Town – Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour says it will be impossible for his department to outsource disciplinary process against officials found corrupt.

This is one of the recommendations made by the Jali Commission, which made headlines in 2002, when it heard allegations of corruption in the Free State's Grootvlei Prison. Four prisoners had made a shocking video, filmed in secret, exposing corruption in the prison, including warders' taking bribes, prostituting juvenile prisoners to older men, and selling drugs and guns to prisoners.

The commission headed by Judge Thabani Jali, was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki in 2001 to investigate issues of corruption, gangsterism and nepotism in South Africa’s correctional service centers.

The commission had recommended, amongst others, that correctional services officials implicated in corruption as found by the inquiry, be subjected to disciplinary action, spearheaded by a task team outside the department.

Briefing the portfolio committee on correctional Services today, Balfour said his department had a “problem” with this specific recommendation.

“The commission requested us to outsource the handling of disciplinary hearings. This is in contravention of the department’s bargaining chamber agreement,” he said.

He said all disciplinary cases would be dealt with and finalised by a centralised, departmental task team.

Late last year, the commission’s investigation report, which stated that rampant corruption, abuse of inmates and lax security systems were the hallmark of most prisons around the country, was handed to the President.

So far, the Department of Correctional Services has managed to formulate 350 cases against officials implicated in the commission’s investigation report.

Advocate Bheki Ndebele, a director in the department, told the committee 43 officials had already been dismissed.

“Eighteen officials received written warnings, 26 cases were withdrawn, while a bulk of the cases was in various stages of investigation,” he said.

Balfour said as much as the department wished all the cases could have been concluded by now, there were obstacles slowing down the process.

“Some of the officials who testified at the commission’s hearings were no longer with the department and some of the prisoners who gave evidence during the inquiry have since been released,” he said.

Balfour also said prisoners who had testified during the commission’s hearing and were still inmates, were now reluctant to do the same for the department’s disciplinary hearing process.

“Some of these prisoners tell officials they can only testify if and when given an undertaking that they would be released soon thereafter,” he said.

However, Balfour maintained that the department was already implementing many of the recommendations made by the Jali commission.

“For example they mentioned the issue of security and installing cameras in our correctional service centers-we are already doing that,” he said.

Balfour said there were already incidents where disciplinary measures had been instituted against prison officials, after they were captured on camera while committing crimes. – BuaNews