Committee Report on Eastern Cape Oversight Visit: Minister and Department responses

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
19 September 2006
MINISTER AND DEPARTMENT RESPONSES TO COMMITTEE REPORT ON EASTERN CAPE PRISONS OVERSIGHT VISIT

Chairperson: Mr D V Bloem (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Minister's opening remarks at the meeting of the Portfolio Committee: Eastern Cape report
Response to Portfolio Committee report: DCS Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape Oversight Visit Committee Report

SUMMARY
The Minister, Deputy Minister, National Commissioner and Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner of Correctional Services responded to the problems identified in the Committee’s report on an oversight visit to the Eastern Cape, and in particular Middledrift Prison. They acknowledged the problems, including overcrowding, gangsterism, shortages of professional staff, gaps in communication and manipulative inmates, and undertook to report progress in addressing these problems using a two, three and six months’ report-back mechanism. The Committee agreed to this request.
 
MINUTES

Chairperson’s introduction
The Chairperson said the Committee felt that it was important to address the findings from its oversight visit to the Eastern Cape urgently. The Eastern Cape visit was very frustrating and that was why the report had been tabled in Parliament more quickly than others. In one instance, a committee report on a visit to the Northern Cape had taken nine months before being tabled in Parliament. The same delays could not be accepted in the case of the Eastern Cape report.

The Chairperson said that he was very happy about the prompt response of the Minister and Department of Correctional Services (DCS). He emphasised the fact that the Portfolio Committee’s role is to do oversight and not to fight with the DCS, but rather to help it.

Remarks by the Minister of Correctional Services
Minister of Correctional Services, Mr Ngconde Balfour, agreed that the Portfolio Committee visit to the Eastern Cape; particularly to Middledrift prison had been frustrating.  According to the Minister, “frustration” was an everyday occurrence for the DCS. He emphasised the importance of ongoing discussions between the DCS and the Committee and asked that the Committee liaise with the Minister’s office when conducting oversight. He asserted that there is political will and commitment to change the system, but it would not be a smooth or quick process. Referring to the problem of overcrowding, the Minister said that, as is the case in many Eastern Cape prisons, it was “very painful” to have ten inmates in a single cell as inmates should not be treated like that. He added that some of the prisons were not built for rehabilitative purposes but only for punitive purposes. The DCS had to be innovative in dealing with that.

The Minister mentioned that inmates were the biggest manipulators of the criminal justice system. In most cases offenders lied and manipulated and did “all these dirty things”. In the process inaccurate and ill-informed information emerged. The Minister highlighted that some DCS officials refused to accept policy developments that were not in their favour and some extracted sympathy at the expense of the truth. There was an impression that there is no promotion in the department. According to the Minister, there is promotion after assessment in the department. Most older prison officials had Standard 8 qualifications and when assessed for promotion they failed. Younger, more qualified officials with fewer years of service thus overtook them.

The Minister said that the DCS agreed with the Portfolio Committee that Middledrift Prison was indeed one of the problematic prisons in the Eastern Cape. The prison in Middledrift was built under the homeland system that left a bad legacy and poor institutional culture. The prison was a power base for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU). The Minister said that the Department wanted to change and bring new thinking to Middledrift. In conclusion, the Minister said that the Department respected the oversight role of the Portfolio Committee. The Department had concrete plans and strategies to address the challenges faced by Correctional Services in the Eastern Cape and he pleaded with the Committee to afford them enough time to implement the policies. He asked that wherever Members visited, they should try to boost the morale of the Department's staff.

The National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Linda Mti, added that the Committee’s visit to the Eastern Cape had left them “vulnerable” as the visit created expectations among the staff that they would be promoted. The Commissioner also highlighted the fact that some of the Department’s managers had been rude and insulted the Department during the Committee’s visit.

The Chairperson refuted the allegation. They had not made any promises of promotion, but had openly interacted with officials.

Ms Nontsikelelo Jolingana, Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner, briefly added that overcrowding was a national challenge and various strategies had been launched to address the issue.

Discussion
Ms W Ngwenya (ANC) asked why the DCS had delayed communicating properly with its staff.

Mr J Selfe (DA) asked the Regional Commissioner how many staff positions were in the Eastern Cape, particularly at Middledrift prison.

Mr N B Fihla (ANC) referred to the statement by the Minister of Safety and Security that the police were going to arrest large numbers of criminals and that DCS should free children and women to make space in prisons. He also wanted the Regional Commissioner to elaborate on the task team that is dealing with overcrowding and anti-gang strategies.

Mr E T Xolo (ANC) referred to an incident at St Albans Prison in which a prison official was stabbed and asked what remedial steps had been taken. He also asked for more explanation on the communication gap in the DCS.

Regional Commissioner Jolingana agreed that there is a need for a staff awareness campaign to better communicate with them.

The National Commissioner said there was a tendency among managers not to communicate anything to their staff that was not in their favour.

The Chairperson said that if managers were not doing their jobs, they should be removed because the situation where fingers are always pointed at the DCS could not continue.
          
The Minister proposed that a communication team from headquarters should visit the regions. The purpose of this team would be to assist the regional and area managers to communicate departmental decisions. Whenever they took decisions at the Executive Ministerial Committee (EMC), those decisions should be communicated to lower levels. The answer was not to remove managers and area commissioners, but to discipline them.

With regard to the issue of funded vacancies, more especially in Middledrift, the Regional Commissioner said that they were supposed to have 256 custodial staff and that posts have been advertised. There were 53 new recruits that have been sent for training in order to fill the vacancies. November 2006 had been set as a deadline for filling the vacancies.

The National Commissioner said that they had an inter-departmental task team on overcrowding.

The Minister stated that the minimum sentencing framework was problematic and had caused the problem of overcrowding. He added that they would place CCTV cameras inside cells to make their anti-gang strategies successful.

Regional Commissioner Jolingana said they had identified the gang leaders at Middledrift and had transferred them to Kokstad.

Mr S Mahote (ANC) said it was true that the managers were insulting during the Portfolio Committee visit. The Committee had not made promises and had noticed the manipulative behaviour of inmates. He felt the DCS had to re-look at the situation where certain managers are also union shop stewards.

Ms R Nawa (ANC) welcomed the appointment of the new Regional Commissioner in the Eastern Cape. She said that in the DCS report there was nothing mentioned about the schooling facilities in the prisons. She asked if disciplinary steps had been taken against officials that had sexual intercourse with inmates and in some instances had had children with inmates.

Moulana M Sayedali-Shah (DA) said that he was very impressed by the Minister; more especially his frequent attendance of the Committee’s meetings. He asked if the DCS had made recommendations to the Department of Justice on the matter of minimum sentencing and overcrowding. He stressed the importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society in the criminal justice system and asked if any NGOs were willing to deal with offenders.

Rev L Tolo (ANC) asked how DCS had attempted to address overcrowding, especially in Middledrift. He also referred to the controversial issue at Middledrift about the ‘sons of the soil’ where unionised staff want to vet who can be appointed, with preference being given to “sons of the soil.”.

Mr E Xolo (ANC) congratulated the Area Commissioner of the Eastern Cape on progress that had been made with service centers, noting that some in East London had schooling facilities. He also acknowledged space problems in some of those centres and the need for creation of better facilities.

Ms Loretta Jacobus, Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, said that shortages of school facilities were a big problem faced by the DCS. Some prisons were built to punish but not to rehabilitate. However, she highlighted that some prisons had schooling facilities and in some instances there were Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) classes conducted by the inmates. They were trying to reach out to NGOs and establish links with faith-based organisations that had correctional outreach programmes.

The National Commissioner said the Minister of Safety and Security should ensure that his statements did not compromise DCS. If inmates did not have enough room to sleep, it was unrealistic to expect adequate space for schooling. They would try to limit incidents of officials having sexual relationships with inmates. The DCS acknowledged the overcrowding problem and lack of certain facilities but it would not be solved overnight.

Regional Commissioner Jolingana said they were trying to accommodate officials who did not have a matric certificate and were in the process of establishing guidelines for managers acting as shop stewards.

The Deputy Minister said that they were promoting the DCS Code of Conduct and were conducting ethics training workshops for DCS staff to eradicate the problem of officials having sexual intercourse with inmates.

The Chairperson wanted to know what happened to an official that had a child with an inmate. The reason the Committee felt DCS was not in control at Middledrift was because inmates had cell phones and credit cards. A person had acted in a position for eleven years, but someone else was appointed to fill it permanently. He asked the reason for the removal of the acting person.

With regard to the official having a child by an inmate, Regional Commissioner Jolingana said the disciplinary hearing had been finalised and they were waiting for the final decision. The situation with acting officials had changed substantially and new developments had affected acting personnel.

The National Commissioner said DCS was not aware of inmates having cell phones and credit cards. In Middledrift one dealt with very difficult people. The notion of ‘the sons of the soil’ entailed domination and intimidation by managers in the Middledrift Prison.

The Minister acknowledged the fact that homeland politics still existed in the prison and lamented that people with outdated politics managed most of the prisons in that area. The Minister requested the Committee to give them time and the opportunity to report on progress. He proposed a short term (two months), medium term (three months) and long term (six months) report-back mechanism.

The Chairperson and the Committee agreed to this report-back mechanism. The Chairperson said he was happy that both the National and Regional Commissioners acknowledged the problems in the Eastern Cape.

General consensus was reached that, after the parliamentary recess, the DCS would report progress to the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.