20 - Department of Correctional Services

Continued from front page
Commissioner Moyane
sets the tone for service
excellence
He adopts a correctional service
department that has overcrowded
prisons, corrupt officials colluding
with offenders during escapes, qualified
financial reports, low staff morale, active
moratorium and is exercising belt tightening
measures among other challenges.
The global recession looks more real at
correctional services to a point that you
can see, touch and feel at all corners of
DCS be it at centre-based or not.
Though a strategic level, his obvious
assignments would among others be to;
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Root out corruption among officials
Bring to an end the status quo of
getting qualified reports every financial
year
Put public safety first (It is against
this that the department’s performance
is measured)
Push for the review of the entire
criminal justice system to support
the department’s means of managing
overcrowding
Tighten security and put an end to
escapes
Render a human based service that
looks at treatment as a priority
Invest in skills development and
education for both officials and offenders
Facilitate a review of the strategic
plan.
He speaks with conviction and his ac-
tions are just as assuring as his spoken
words. With less than three months in office,
Commissioner Moyane, as expected,
has already taken the front row seat
to drive the service delivery vehicle of the
department as it remains on course to be
one of the best service providers in the
world by delivering correctional services
with integrity and commitment to excellence.
The Commissioner kicked off his new
correctional aspirations by addressing
the Head Office staff on his fist day at
work on 17 May to set the pace and inform
the officials of the type of personnel
he wanted in his arsenal.
He said in his first official address,
“This day marks the beginning of a new
chapter in a long journey to effectively
transform our department as a collective,
into a department that is responsive
and capable to execute its mandate with
integrity, commitment and excellence.
The latter three pillars are possible only
4 SA Corrections Today
M A N A G E M E N T N E W S M A N A G E M E N T N E W S
if we can inculcate a culture of accountability
in all the relevant disciplines of our
work environment. The products we are
charged to transform and help integrate
back into the society after incarceration,
are fellow human beings who have deviant
behaviour.”
Eight days after his welcome, Minister
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula introduced
the national commissioner to his strategic
partners in government at the Portfolio
Committee in Parliament (on 25 May).
He briefly addressed the committee
wherein he said he had been learning
about the department and had engaged
with counterparts in the Criminal Justice
Cluster to encourage a relationship of
mutuality.
He committed himself that he would
approach the minister on matters such
as staffing shortfalls, among other issues,
and keep the committee informed
on progress made. He said that he saw
the role of the Portfolio Committee as not
just mandatory one, but as a partner.
“We need to work together to
increase the number of offenders
participating in rehabilitation
programmes.”
- Mr Tom Moyane
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
on Corrections Mr Vincent Smith
gave the new leadership of correctional
services the thumbs and said he is hopeful
the new leadership team would be
more effective.
With the appointment of Commissioner
Moyane among others, the minister also
pronounced at that meeting that the DCS
now had a committed leadership, and
that there would be a transfer of senior
managers to close leadership gabs
in the department, and because others
have been long in comfort zones. She
remarked that the DCS now had committed
leadership in the national commissioner
and the Chief Financial Officer (Mr
Sphiwe Sokhela).
Seventeen days later (on 2 June), the
commissioner was beginning to win the
hearts of correctional officials when he
held a historic teleconference with the
officials across the country using 198 listening
stations to get everyone on board.
The teleconference was mainly held for
the commissioner to introduce himself to
the entire staff members and to communicate
his vision. From his address he
continued from his welcome address
with Head Office officials on 17 May,
wherein he emphasized three pillars he
regards should be the cornerstones of
service delivery, namely integrity, commitment
and excellence. He told officials
that he was not bringing a magic wand to
the department but would take a cue from
President Jacob Zuma’s book and work
smart to achieve the desired results.
He said, “Building trust among ourselves
is a qualitative approach of solving
the challenges our department is
faced with. Our fore bearers have laid a
solid foundation that includes the White
Paper for us to expand on. We must not
allow a few rotten officials to destabilise
our rhythm.” His timing of joining the
department couldn’t have been more
wrong. He came in while the department
had just experienced one of the highest
escapes in the current democratic dispensations.
The 41 remand detainees
had escaped at Harrismith Correctional
Centre. For that he said was not the kind
of welcome he had wished for. Together
with the minister they were called to act
and they subsequently dismissed two
senior officials summarily.
He reached for staff participation, “We
need to work together to increase the
number of offenders participating in rehabilitation
programmes. We must also
root out corruption among ourselves; reduce
the public’s negative perceptions of
government and change people’s minds
and attitudes about how they view us. We
must always remember that the South
African masses have invested over R15
billion in us to deliver an improved service,”
he said.
His other intensions to move the department
out of the bad books of the Auditor
General where bussed to peak with the
appointment of the Chief Financial Officer
Mr Sokhela (CDC Finance). Commissioner
Moyane described the department’s
new CDC Finance, who also
started duty with him on the same day,
as a man with a no-nonsense approach
to financial management, unquestionable
experience and qualification bound
to lead DCS to its goal of recording an
unqualified audit opinion.
“For us to achieve this vision we must
quickly review our Strategic Plan to align
it with the prescripts of the “White paper
on Corrections in South Africa”. Management
will quickly and urgently have
to deal with these strategic imperatives.
Most importantly though, is the fact that
our success does not rest solely on management.
Every official has an important
role to play,” concluded the commissioner
further urging the need for every
official to push his own barrow within the
organisation and to make it successful.
Portfolio Committee pleased with
major service delivery improvements
By Molatelo Mokumo
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Corrections ended their
week long oversight visit to five correctional facilities in four
regions with confidence that their efforts to see service delivery
levels improving in correctional centres were yielding results.
The Committee visited Leeuwkop, Pretoria,
Rusternburg, New Kimberly and
Durban Westville Correctional centres
between the 2nd and the 6th of August 20 0
to assess the amount of work done since their
earlier visit in May this year.
National Commissioner Tom Moyane also
took part in three of the five visits and drew
solace upon hearing positive commendations
from the committee Chairperson Mr Vincent
Smith when he said that things were improving
in the department.
Commissioner Moyane was quick to point
out that the department will act decisively to
correct a number of challenges raised by the
Portfolio Committees during their visit. He
assured the committed that the era of “skop
en donner is no longer with us. The incarceration
of those that committed serious crimes,
does not give us permission to double their
punishment.”
He committed the Department to address
leadership weaknesses, victimisation of officials
who speak out, officials who lie to
members of Parliament and to prioritise the
reclassification of offenders. He told the officials
that, “the Portfolio Committee are not
our enemy or adversaries, they are here to
identify blind spots for us to see key service
delivery improvements areas which may not
be obvious to us. We should refrain from lying
or misleading them. It is unacceptable to
give the Portfolio Committee sugar-coated
reports.”
When Portfolio Committee visited in May,
they held both Departments of Correctional
Services and Public Works accountable for
lack of service witnessed at the time. They
insisted to see improvements in strategic
areas such as; administration; facilities; inmate
labour and privileges; Development
and Care; Social Reintegration as well addressing
overcrowding through among others,
Awaiting Trial Detainees programme and
bail protocol.
Speaking at a debriefing at the end of the
oversight visit in Durban, the committee
Chairperson Mr Smith said, “We overall happy
with what has been achieved in improving
correctional facilities since our previous visit
in May 20 0.” The committee recommended
that the New Kimberly facility, be used to accommodate
juveniles and/or offenders who
commands a positive attitude in life and not
hardened criminals serving long sentences.
They also called for the demolition of a temporary
zinc facility erected for juvenile offenders
in Leeuwkop. The makeshift facility
was build under the pretext of a temporary
structure but it’s been in use for more than
0 years.
Mr Smith promised to undertake unannounced
visits to correctional facilities visited
during the week to assess progress on
projects set for completion before December
20 0.
Correctional Services has assured the parliamentarians
that the Kokstad Maximum
Correctional Centre with 440 bed-space capacity
will be filled by December 2010 as infrastructure
challenges and limitations have
been largely addressed.
MAY/JUNE 20 0
Members of the Portfolio Committees on
Corrections and Public Works addressing
offenders at the New Kimberley a week
after one of its sections was torched.
Kokstad is the most secure facility in the
country but due to infrastructure limitations,
it is only 8% occupied, a matter the Correctional
Services Portfolio Committee raised
emphatically during its May 20 0 visit.
Since holding both Departments of Correctional
Services and Public Works in May to
account for these challenges, improvements
made include: ventilation, hot water, standby
generators and kitchen equipment which
have been fixed. The Portfolio Committee on
Public Works also joined the oversight visits
from day three to account on their responsibility
areas around correctional facilities.
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
on Corrections Mr Vincent Smith gives an
overviews of their oversight visit to five
facilities while his counterpart in Public
Works Mr Godfrey Olifant and the KZN RC
Mr Mnikelwa Nxele looks on
Both departments highlighted that further
maintenance work to fix non-functioning
boilers, leaking roofs, falling ceilings, broken
window panes, non-operational security
taut-wire and main water supply pipes are
being addressed and will be completed before
the end of the year. Most of the funds
will be sourced from the allocated budget of
R8 0m for the Repair and Maintenance Programme
(RAMP) nationally for the current
financial year. Public Works confirmed that
over R5. million had already been spent or
committed in Kokstad and Durban Westville
Correctional Centres.
Also addressing the meeting, the Chairperson
of the Portfolio Committee on Public
Works Mr. Godfrey Olifant appreciated
progress made but called for sustainability of
the infrastructure maintenance programme
by both departments. He called for the development
of a multiyear infrastructure maintenance
plan for all correctional facilities.
The Departments raised key causes of infrastructure
degradation which would need
to also be addressed. These include serious
overcrowding as the Durban Westville Management
Area which houses over 0 000 inmates
while it was designed to accommodation
6000 inmates.
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