Issued by: African National Congress
Press Statement of Transformation Forum on Correctional services, Pretoria, 1 March 1996
On 28 February the Minister of Correctional Services announced that he had decided to terminate the participation of the Department of Correctional Services in the Transformation Forum on Correctional Services. This morning, 1 March, the remaining members of the Forum met in Pretoria and agreed to the following statement:
The various organisations making up the Transformation Forum reconfirm their commitment to transformation in the Department of Correctional Services and in our country's prisons.
We are surprised at the statements made by Dr Mzimela. He states that he finds the performance of the Forum disappointing. He fails to mention the work the Forum has completed and handed to him. This includes recommendations regarding the demilitarisation of the Department and the formation of a Change Management Team. He also states that the Forum has been in existence since April 1995. This is not true. The Forum was formed only in July 1995, after an extensive process of consultation with various organisations involved in the correctional field, during which it was known as the Interim Transformation Task Group (ITTG).
Despite the support the Minister expressed for the Trans- formation Forum in Parliament in 1995, there has been a distinct lack of co-operation from Dr Mzimela's Ministry. On a number of occasions he has been invited to attend Forum meetings to discuss his ideas with us. He has never done so. On a number of occasions we have suggested to him that our communication with him would be vastly improved if he sent his own representative to our meetings. He also refused to do this. The only contact the Transformation Forum has had with the Minister's representative was when his Special Advisor, Mr Goltz Wessmann, attended a workshop held by the Forum in November 1995. Mr Wessmann agreed that a representative of the Minister should attend Forum meetings. This never happened. The Minister has never made available - in any form - his programme for transformation. If he has any such programme he has kept it secret.
As far as finance is concerned, we need to make it clear that the Forum is not funded by either the Department or the Ministry. The Forum has been wholly funded by the Danish government, funds which are managed by IDASA. The Department provided transport for trade union representatives, who are members of the Department. The Department has never accounted to us for the amounts it has spent.
Members of the Transformation Forum are not paid for their time or their work. Often this adds up to hours every week, because the members of the Forum are committed to the process of transformation.
The Transformation Forum has decided to send a delegation to discuss the Minister's arbitrary and unilateral action with President Mandela. We believe that the President needs to be informed about the crisis the Minister's actions have created, because Dr Mzimela is accountable to President Mandela and as a Minister of the Government of National Unity must subscribe both in words and in actions to the basic principles of the GNU's reconstruction programme.
The Forum will continue in the meantime. We will try to esta- blish the position of the Department of Correctional Services with regard to transformation. We will, however, not be able to continue with very important work which we are currently engaged in, regard- ing demilitarisation, the establishment of an independent prisons inspectorate and research into major problems within our prisons.
We will continue to work constructively to find resolution to the problem and find ways of moving the process ahead. We have informed our funders about these events.
Transformation of this country's Department of Correctional Services, as with all it's government departments, will continue. This will happen within the parameters of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Notwithstanding the unilateral decision of the Minister, he and his Department remain accountable to the South African people. The legitimacy of the transformation process is wholly dependent on the participation of all the stakeholders in corrections. A unilateral attempt to transform the Department will lack any credibility. The most basic principle for transformation is transparency, consultation and accountability. None of this can be achieved without the full involvement of all the members of the Transformation Forum.
Mr Carl Niehaus MP Chairperson: Transformation Forum on Correctional Services.