Issued by: Ministry for Welfare and Population Development
28 April 1997
TRANSFORMATION OF THE COUNTRY'S CHILD AND YOUTH CARE CENTRES TAKING SHAPE
WALTER SISULU CHILD CARE CENTRE - THE COUNTRY'S FIRST SECURE CARE FACILITY TO BE LAUNCHED IN GAUTENG
A 14-year-old youth waits anxiously at the Durban Magistrates Court. He has been arrested on suspicion of having stolen a bicycle. Previously in South African he would be waiting in a police cell, frightened, perhaps alone or perhaps with older boys threatening him. Today, however, he waits for his parents to come to court in a brightly pained room with posters on the wall and in the comforting presence of Nomusa, a probation officer from the Department of Welfare. Nomusa has interviewed the youth already and has sent a "family finder" to notify his parents and ask them to come immediately as she intends to arrange for the youth to be released into their care. Previously, the youth would have spent the night, perhaps many nights, in police cells or prison where statistics show he would be likely to have been raped, tattooed or initiated into a gang.
The brightly painted room is a reception centre, the hub of a pilot project testing a new procedure for the reception and assessment of arrested children and the referral of the cases to an appropriate process.
The pilot project is just one of 6 different projects set up by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk to test aspects of their policy recommendations regarding the transformation of the child and youth care system. The committee is chaired by Welfare and Population Development Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
The committee was set up in mid 1995 to deal with the problems which arose when legislation bringing South Africa in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child halted the detention of awaiting trial children in prisons and police cells.
The legislation needed to be underpinned by an inter-sectoral approach and adequate infrastructure which was lacking at the time and to design the transformation of the child and youth care system.
Hard work has gone into the development of interim policy recommendations through a consultative process, and into setting up the pilot projects to test the ideas and to provide direct assistance to thousand of children.
The interim policy document concentrates on children who have been at risk of being placed away from home - either because they are in need of care and protection or because they are charged with serious offences. The document envisages a shift away from spending resources on residential care in institutions and points the way towards prevention and early intervention.
The reception centre at the Durban Magistrates Court is a testing ground for early intervention. The aim is for Welfare probation services to intervene soon after arrest and to ensure that wherever possible the child will go home and not be institutionalised. In some cases, the matter is diverted completely away from the criminal justice system, with the child taking responsibility for his or her actions by attending an educational programme or undertaking community service. Since its inception last year, the project has already dealt with over 2000 children.
Another IMC pilot project is the Family Preservation project at Inanda. This project is deeply rooted within the community, and works to prevent children from being placed away from their families by providing direct assistance to families at risk. The community is involved in giving this support, which ranges from practical assistance such as helping with housekeeping through to providing mentors who support youth. The involvement of families and communities is aimed at re-igniting inherent strengths and reclaiming the spirit of Ubuntu.
In trying to find solutions to the issue of children who may need to be held securely, the IMC developed the concept of secure care, and provincial departments of Welfare have been assisted in the setting up of a secure care facility in each province. "Secure care facilities are not prisons with another name" explains Minister Fraser-Moleketi. "They are carefully designed and have appropriately trained staff to run specially designed programmes for children who need intensive management," she adds.
The Noordgesigt secure care facility (to be named the Walter Sisulu Child Care Centre) is due to open in Soweto on Tuesday, April 29, 1997. It is a multi-purpose facility and will provide care for children with widely ranging needs. A secure care facility in Mpumalanga is due to open in June 97. The planning of the facility has been characterised by the involvement of the community who have been involved in decision making and care providing services to the facility. All provincial department of Welfare have embarked on the process of setting up at least one secure care facility in each province, and it is expected that all facilities will be complete by February 1998.