Issued by: Office of the President
1 April 1998
CABINET STATEMENT ON CHILDREN AWAITING TRIAL: SECTION 29 OF THE CORRECTIONAL SERVICES ACT
The Cabinet has endorsed the position of government that children and youth awaiting trial should not be detained in prison or police cells.
Cabinet has agreed to the following:
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk, which includes the Ministries and Departments of Justice, Welfare, Correctional Services, Education, Safety & Security and Public Works, was established in 1995 following the release of children awaiting trial and the subsequent need to transform the child and youth care system in South Africa. A new integrated and inter-sectoral policy was developed and initiated in 1997 and together with this, new programmes reflecting the guidelines and principles were set up to test out the new system. One of the new programmes is the establishing of secure care for young people awaiting trial in each province, as an appropriate alternative to prisons. This latter programme, while not completed in each province, is well under way and will be operational throughout the country within the following 8 months. KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Northern Province, Free State, and Mpumalanga will all have secure care ready by August this year.
Further more, with regard to the many hundreds of children who are neither potentially a danger to themselves or others, the IMC and Department of Welfare which is responsible for children awaiting trial, is pursuing community based options such as professional foster care, and alternative residential care in children's homes, schools of industry and reform schools.
In November 1997, the IMC Ministries and Departments established Project Go in each province to fast-track the transformation of the child and youth care system and prepare the system for the children awaiting trial after May 10 1998. This project includes a review of each child in places of safety, schools of industry, reforms schools, prisons, police cells, and children's homes at present, and where appropriate and possible, the movement of children back to their communities and families, or to less restrictive options. It also includes an increased initiative by welfare to provide effective probation services to young people in trouble with the law. The Ministries and Departments of Welfare and Education are co-operating closely to ensure that residential care facilities are upgraded and made available and the particular support and co-operation from the Department of Education in this regard is deeply appreciated.
The project is making significant progress and by May 10 there will be sufficient services and accommodation in each province for the group of children who will be released from prisons into secure care, places of safety and the alternative options mentioned above.
Enquiries: Lesley du Toit, The Manager, IMC, Phone: 0829559828 Brian Sokutu, Ministry for Welfare, Phone; 0828075397