As part of our commitment to rehabilitation of offenders, the ...

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: VOTE 19
REPORT OF THE ACCOUNTING OFFICER
for the year ended 31 March 2008
Overcrowding
The approved capacity of inmates within DCS was 114
559; there were 165 840 inmates in custody of which
113 178 were sentenced offenders and 52 662 were
remand detainees. Overcrowding has been included in
the Department Risk Profile in relation both to remand
detainees and sentenced offenders. The Department
has made good progress with regard to the sentenced
offenders. The average number of sentenced offenders
decreased from 114 349 in 2006/07 to 112 552 in the
reporting year. There was also a notable decrease in
the number of children in custody and at the end of the
financial year there were 845 children in comparison with
1 100 in 2006/07.
Ten centres have been earmarked for conversion into
Remand Detention Facilities (RDF) and are presented
below in terms of regional location:
Region Western Cape Eastern Cape KwaZulu Natal Gauteng
Centre Pollsmoor St Albans
Durban Westville
Pietermaritzburg
Free State &
Northern Cape
Limpopo/Mpumalanga/North
West
Boksburg Grootvlei Potchefstroom
Modderbee
Pretoria Local
Johannesburg
Medium A
Total 1 1 2 4 1 1
The remand detainees will be migrated to the RDFs over
a period of 3 years commencing from 2008/09
1.2 Comment on significant events that have taken
place during the year
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The Excellence Awards were held to acknowledge
and reward good performance by officials. It is also
in line with the retention strategy of the Department.
In what are the most daring escapes during the year
under review 10 inmates escaped from the Qalakabusha
correctional facility. The officials involved
have been disciplined.
Three inmates were killed by officials during what
is believed to have been a gang related incident at
the Krugersdorp correctional facility. The officials
involved have since been disciplined.
The department also dismissed officials from Pretoria
Management Area who were involved in corruption.
Their activities were captured by the SABC
Special Assignment programme.
1.3 Comment on major projects undertaken or completed
during the year
The Department has identified priority projects that it
has started delivery on and will focus on in the next two
years. The projects are the 7-Day Establishment & Job
Refinement, Infrastructure Development, Phased implementation
of the Offender Rehabilitation Path (ORP),
Phased implementation of Social Reintegration Action
Plan, Remand Detention System, Security Enhancement,
Centres of Excellence (CoE) and the Monitoring, Evaluation
and Reporting (MER) Project. To ensure delivery on
these projects the Department has established a Project
Office and developed a comprehensive project management
framework.
1.4 Spending trend
The Department spending has improved from 94.1 per
cent (R9,3 billion against an allocated budget of R9,8
billion) in 2006/07 financial year to 97,7 per cent (R11,1
billion against an allocated budget of R11,4 billion) in
2007/08 financial year. This is mainly due to the improvement
on billing from the Department of Public Works
for property management services and capital works
projects as well as the expenditure incurred in line with
the requirements for the implementation of the Public
Service Coordinating Bargaining Chamber Resolution
Number 1 of 2007.
The Department does not have sufficient funds in
2008/09 financial year and also over the MTEF period to
implement the various OSDs as required by the Public
Service Coordinating Bargaining Chamber Resolution
Number 1 of 2007. DPSA and National Treasury have
been approached to note the budgetary predicament
that the Department faces in line with the continuous implementation
of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining
Chamber Resolution No. 1 of 2007.
An over-expenditure of R18 million was incurred under
the Security programme GFS item goods & services
mainly due to the under funded expenditure on the manning
of security control rooms services.
DCS Annual Report 2007/08 79