Correctional Services South Africa

Shaik, back behind bars, cuts a sad figure

2007-02-17T09:41:00.001-08:00

February 16 2007
Dressed in an orange prison uniform, convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik cut a sad figure as he was escorted out of St Augustine's Hospital to continue serving his sentence behind bars.

But instead of going back to serve the rest of his 15-year term in the far-flung Qalakabusha jail, Shaik will remain close to his family.

“We have chosen Durban Westville Correctional Centre because of its proximity to St Augustine hospital where Shaik was admitted and treated by his private doctors which is also close to his doctors and family,” Correctional Services minister Ngconde Balfour said on Thursday.

Shaik will reportedly be placed in a general ward in the prison's hospital section.

Balfour said: “I wish to reassure all South Africans that no offender will be treated preferentially, but in terms of the provisions of the Correctional Services Act and our regulations which ensure access to private medical treatment at an offender's own expense.”

The head of parliament's correctional services portfolio committee Dennis Bloem said he could only comment on the matter once he had examined the medical reports related to Shaik's case.

Shaik has been in hospital for close to 100 days and has reportedly rung up a bill of more than R600 000 during his stay.

Last week Correctional Services minister Ngconde Balfour sent a specialist to conduct a medical examination on Shaik to determine if he was really ill or if he was faking an illness to remain in the private hospital.

This was after he reviewed the reports submitted by two private medical practitioners who diagnosed Shaik and that of a third doctor who was sent by the department.

A nurse at St Augustine's hospital, who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity, said a convoy of correctional services officers accompanied Shaik as they drove off with him just before 4pm.

“He was wearing an orange uniform and he was surrounded by family members, correctional services officers and hospital security as he was led out the hospital,” she said.

“He was not assisted in any way and slowly walked out the hospital to the prison cars waiting to accompany him.”

The nurse also said that Shaik left the hospital through the doctor's car park where a prison vehicle was waiting for him.

“He caused quite a spectacle as he was leaving and patients were stopping to see what was going on and before he jumped into the van he shook hands with all his family members,” she said.

She said even though hospital personnel were initially angry that he had been kept at the hospital for so long, they were all sad to see him go.

It is believed that Shaik was visited by correctional services officials on Wednesday, presumably to inform him that he was going to be moved back to a prison facility.

Discovery Health has also started investigations into the validity of Shaik's medical aid claims. Recent media reports stated that the medical aid had not declined any of the claims as yet.

This will only be decided pending the outcome of the investigation. The investigation is being independently conducted.

Shortly after the announcement Shaik's brother, Mo, told the SABC that his brother's blood pressure was very high and that he was concerned about his health.

Mo Shaik said on Thursday that his brother's transfer to the prison had been done in consultation with the Shaik family and that they had been “forewarned”.

“Our doctors were of course not happy on the matter”.

He said there was no opposition to the minister's decision and “we all thought we would need a co-operative agreement”.

Mo said that doctors from Discovery Health and prison doctors had confirmed the findings of the family doctors that Shaik suffers from persistent high blood pressure that may be genetic and is drug resistant.

While in hospital Shaik was reportedly treated for high blood pressure and a mild stroke.

An angiogram was also conducted to check for blocked arteries and a maxillo-facial surgery is said to have been done to remove abscesses from his gums.

Shaik was convicted of fraud and corruption by Judge Hilary Squires in July 2005. In November last year the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld judgement and Shaik was sent to prison on November 9. He was then transferred to Qalakabusha Prison in Empangeni where he spent a few days before being rushed to the Durban hospital.

Meanwhile, Shaik's woes continue as the Transport Department is expected to make an announcement on its agreement with one of his subsidiaries, Prodiba, which was contracted to make credit card drivers licences for government since 1989.

In the first phase of the deal Prodiba was paid R260-million, but the Public Finance Management Act forbids government departments from doing business with convicted criminals.

DA wants Yengeni's parole conditions made public

2007-02-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

February 16, 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is to formally request Ngconde Balfour, the correctional services minister, to make Tony Yengeni, the former ANC Chief Whip's file and parole conditions available to the public.

Yengeni was released from Malmesbury Prison last month after serving only 20 weeks of his four-year sentence. James Selfe, the DA spokesperson on correctional services, says Yengeni has only reported once to the Educare Centre where he is supposed to do community service. Selfe says if the minister refuses to release the file, he will consider using the Promotion of Access to Information Act to compel the department to comply with the DA's request.

Yengeni was convicted of fraud in 2004 after serving four months of his four-year sentence. His prison stint was marked by allegations that he received preferential treatment.

Extra watch on Boeremag men

2007-02-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

15/02/2007
Increased security measures have been taken at C-Max Prison to prevent the Boeremag treason trial accused from escaping, the Pretoria High Court was told on Thursday.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour earlier this week applied for two previous court orders - dealing with the incarceration and consultation arrangements of 12 of the 22 Boeremag accused - to be set aside.

The correctional services department expressed concern that the objectives of a document found in possession of re-captured Boeremag escapees Rudi Gouws and Herman van Rooyen would be carried out if the two were held with the others in the same section at C-Max.

The document - which may not be published - apparently contained a detailed escape plan.

Three of the treason trialists already have been moved out of the "Boeremag section" of the jail at their own request.

Checkmate situation

Judge Eben Jordaan said he was not prepared to hear the application at this stage, after objections that he could be "contaminated" by information in the "secret" document, which has not been admitted yet as evidence in the criminal trial.

He referred the application to Judge Hans Fabricius, who refused to make an order and referred the matter back to Judge Jordaan.

Counsel for the minister, Jaco Roux, said this left the department in an unenviable checkmate situation, because there was no ruling to appeal and Judge Jordaan did not want to hear the application - or even read through it - at this stage.

Correctional services had no choice other than to shelve the application, until the document on which it wanted to rely was before the court.

This situation also worried the department, which could not choose when and if the State decided to use the document.

Wearing leg-irons in court

Roux said extra security measures had been put in place, meanwhile, but this was only a short-term solution, as they placed enormous strain on correctional services.

Gouws and Van Rooyen - both farmers in the Bela-Bela district - have appeared in court in leg-irons since their escape from the cells at Pretoria High Court during a lunch break in May last year.

They escaped despite the presence of numerous armed members of the National Intervention Unit.

Correctional Services defends parole system

2007-02-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

15 February 2007 11:44
The Department of Correctional Services has taken out a R27 500 newspaper advert in which it defends itself against claims that it has given certain prisoners preferential treatment.

"Do not shout from the sidelines, submit evidence of wrongdoing to the minister, the inspecting judge and the Parole Review Board for corrective action," the advert states.

The department has faced criticism recently over its handling of the incarceration of fraud convicts Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik.

They are not mentioned by name in the more than quarter-page advertisement carried on page 11 of the Star newspaper on Thursday.

"Recent allegations of preferential treatment of some offenders are probably due to being uninformed or motivated by other factors," the department notes in the advert headed "Correctional Supervision & Parole System".

“In 2006 alone, 4 696 people were sentenced to serve one sixth [of their sentences] in custody … 3 518 of these offenders were placed under correctional supervision without any big fanfare."

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour had repeatedly assured South Africans the department was committed to implementing court decisions "without fear or favour".

Explaining sentencing procedures, the department wrote that prisoners could receive anything from supervised community service, to brief custody before placement in communities under supervision, or jail terms.

They could also receive a "half a sentence" before those thought "deserving" were considered for release on parole.

The releases were decided by 52 independent correctional supervision and parole boards. Their decisions were based on case management committees's recommendations made after a mandatory portion of sentences had been served.

Those sentenced to community service or those placed on parole were conditionally released and monitored until their sentences expired.

"Objections to decisions ... can be lodged with the Parole Review Board that has at least three Supreme Court judges."

The department claimed in the advertisement that a "recent wave of reporting and commentary" had shown the department's challenges over public awareness and understanding of its core mandate and system.

On overcrowding it wrote that 33 prisoners a day were moved between prisons to address the problem, with 11 900 inmates shifted last year.

The department could not immediately be reached for comment. - Sapa

Boeremag duo not likely to escape again

2007-02-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

February 14 2007

There was nothing to suggest that correctional services had any real fears that an escape plan allegedly hatched by former Boeremag escapees Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws would actually be carried out if they were held in the same section of the C-Max prison, a High Court Judge said on Wednesday.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour this week launched an urgent application to set aside two previous court rulings about the joint incarceration of 12 of the 22 Boeremag accused in the same section of C-Max, as well as their rights to consult with each other and their legal representatives.

Three of the accused have already been moved to another section voluntarily, but Van Rooyen and Gouws turned to trial Judge Eben Jordaan for help after they were kept in chains in separate cells in a different section following their re-arrest.

They still appeared in court in leg irons, but rejoined the other accused in the closed "Boeremag section" at C-Max on Sunday after Jordaan last week said that his order about where they should be held remained valid.

Correctional Services claimed a document found in possession of Van Rooyen and Gouws during their latest arrest contained information of such a nature that there was a very real possibility that the objectives of the document would be executed if all of the accused were kept together and allowed to "roam free" in that section of the jail.

The court earlier heard that the document - which remains secret - contained new coup plans to overthrow the ANC government, as well as a detailed escape plan, sketch plans and a description of the "weak points" of Correctional Services.

The prosecution objected to the application being heard by trial Jordaan, as the document had not yet been placed before the court and might "contaminate" the judge, but Judge Hans Fabricius said many documents, which were eventually disregarded, served before courts every day.

He said he could not at this stage find that Correctional Services' fears were real and was of the opinion that he would violate the accused's rights if he set aside previous court orders.

He refused to make an order and referred the matter back to Judge Jordaan for adjudication. - Sapa

Report on Mathe's escape delayed

2007-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

January 30 2007
Curious South Africans wanting to know how one of the country's most dangerous criminals managed to escape from the security tight C-Max prison will have to wait at least another month.

This comes after the postponement of a briefing by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to parliament's portfolio committee on correctional services about Annanais Mathe's escape. The briefing was set for the end of this month but has now been postponed to February 20th to allow investigators to compile their report.

The report according to correctional services portfolio committee chairperson Dennis Bloem, is also expected to shed light on the alleged involvement of eight correctional services officials in aiding Mathe's escape.

The first prisoner to escape from C-Max in its 36-year history
The eight were suspended shortly after Mathe was recaptured in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg towards the end of last year as he tried to flee in a stolen car.

Both the portfolio committee and the select committee on correctional services visited the C-Max last Thursday and according to Bloem, it was still a big mystery how Mathe found his way out of the prison.

Bloem said Balfour's appearance before the committee was postponed after the committee felt it would be pointless for him to come without the report. Mathe, who faces numerous counts of armed robbery, theft and rape, became the first prisoner to escape from C-Max in its 36-year history.

This was one of the reasons the public dismissed the initial explanations that Mathe had smeared himself with vaseline for him to slip through the prison windows.

His escape prompted a massive manhunt as authorities feared he might flee to his country of origin, Mozambique. The police were also concerned at his ability to play hide and seek with the law after it took police about nine months to recapture him after his first escape from prison in 2005.

Balfour's spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said Balfour was assured that the compilation of the report would be complete before his scheduled appearance before the committee next month.

Parliament to do own inspection on Mathe escape

2007-01-26T21:45:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2007

The Parliamentary committee on correctional services will do its own inspection on the escape route of Ananias Mathe, dubbed South Africa's most dangerous criminal and escapee, from C-Max Prison in Pretoria.

The inspection comes ahead of a scheduled briefing to Parliament next week by Ngconde Balfour, the minister of correctional services.

Balfour is to give a detailed report on how Mathe escaped from what is supposed to be the most secured correctional services facility.

Dennis Bloem, the committee chairperson, said instead of just waiting for Balfour to come and deliver the report to Parliament, the committee intends to go and look out for the loopholes itself, so as to be on par with the report when Balfour briefs them.

The committee will also do a follow-up inspection on the death of two guards who were gunned down two years ago.

It will also have to decide whether it is necessary to summon the Malmesbury Prison Area Commissioner to come and explain whether it is true that Tony Yengeni, a convicted fraudster, received preferential treatment before his release into correctional supervision.

The call to summon the commissioner was made by James Selfe, the Democratic Alliance committee member on correctional services.

This is not just an ordinary case

2007-01-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

26/01/2007

Security was tight at Johannesburg magistrate's court where South Africa's "Houdini" Annanias Mathe made a brief appearance on Friday.

Nine policemen armed with R4 rifles escorted the limping Mathe inside the court.

His case was postponed to March 30 for further investigation. He faces at least 50 charges including murder, attempted murder, hijacking, rape and armed robbery.

The Mozambican is believed to be connected to a criminal syndicate operating between South Africa and Mozambique.

State prosecutor Vivian Hawkins requested that the case be postponed for further investigation.

She told Magistrate Canna Coetzee that as the accused had escaped, the case became more complex and bigger, as a result more cases were being investigated.

Coetzee granted the postponement and told Mathe to apply for legal aid.

Relaxed, smiling

An attorney who introduced himself as Moosa told the court that he had been approached by the Legal Aid Board to represent Mathe. Mathe accepted Moosa as his attorney.

In the dock, the shackled Mathe was in the company of a policeman who kept a close eye on him.

Mathe looked relaxed and even smiled when he spoke to the investigating officer Captain Arnold Boonstra before the proceedings began.

The case attracted a lot of attention as court staff, including some cleaners who were dressed in green uniforms, took time off and attended the proceedings at court 16.

Some staff were heard gloating to the their colleagues that a high profile case was in their courtroom.

"This is not just an ordinary case," one interpreter told his colleague.

Mathe made headlines in November last year when he escaped from the Pretoria C-Max prison, the country's most secure prison.

At the time, he was thought to have stripped and covered his entire body with petroleum jelly to climb out of a window measuring 20cm x 60cm.

He was re-arrested in December.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour will on Tuesday brief Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Correctional service and the National Council of Provinces Select Committee on Security and Constitutional affairs on an investigation into Mathe's escape, and recommendations for improving security.

Yengeni is (still) getting special treatment

2007-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

January 26 2007

A storm is brewing in prisons over claims that Tony Yengeni continues to enjoy preferential treatment, even after his release under correctional supervision.

Warders say the convicted fraudster has been given "phase four" status for his correctional supervision instead of phase one or two status, which are usually prescribed for his type of offence.

A senior warder described Yengeni's placing as "out of the ordinary".

According to prison sources, the head of the Cape Town Community Corrections Centre (Commcor), deputy director M Ngalonkulu, also instructed officers at the centre that only he and a senior correctional officer assigned to Yengeni would be allowed to visit him as part of a monitoring process that checks whether former prisoners are honouring their restrictions.

Approached for comment, Ngalonkulu said: "I have no authority to speak to you."

When told about allegations about the instruction, he said: "Where did you hear that? That's news to me."

A third allegation is that after Yengeni's release from Malmesbury prison on January 16, warders from the Cape Town Commcor office were suddenly summoned to attend a meeting at Pollsmoor prison in Tokai the next day.

Sources allege that while the Commcor officials were away, Yengeni arrived at the Cape Town offices to report to Ngalonkulu and another senior correctional services officer whose identity is known to the Cape Argus. Ngalonkulu also denied this.

The Cape Argus contacted Luphumzo Kebeni, spokesperson for Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, to ask him about the allegations, but he ended the call abruptly.

A phase four convict out on parole or correctional supervision would have fewer restrictions on his or her movements compared to those on phase one, two and three.

More than a week after his release, Yengeni, who is known to have visited the Cape Town Commcor office on Monday and Wednesday to see Ngalonkulu, has not yet been assigned a venue at which to perform his 16 hours of monthly community service.

Prison clerk held over stolen car parts

2007-01-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

A Pollsmoor prison clerk was arrested on charges of dealing in stolen car parts and running an illegal business from government premises, the Correctional Services Ministry said on Tuesday.

Ministry spokesman Luphumzo Kebeni said the man was arrested with another suspect who is not a Correctional Services employee but was allegedly illegally staying with him at the clerk’s departmental residence in Pollsmoor in Cape Town.

“The second suspect is an ex-offender who has previous criminal convictions. The arrested official was subletting his departmental residential unit to the second suspect.”

Kebeni said the clerk was due to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.

Minister Ngconde Balfour said the security vetting of all staff by the National Intelligence Agency would be speeded up.

He said the department’s residential policy would be overhauled, with staff given three years in department residences after which they would have to find their own accommodation.

An audit is to be carried out to find those illegally occupying department premises, illegally running businesses from them or subletting.

Those involved in illegal activities could face dismissal, said Balfour.

C-Max Houdini to appear in court

2007-01-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

January 16 2007 at 07:26AM

Annanias Mathe, who escaped from the high-security C-Max Prison in Pretoria last year, will appear in the Pretoria magistrate's court on Tuesday, SABC news reported.

He is to face a charge relating to his escape in November.

Mathe, who has been described as the country's most notorious prisoner, is facing more than 50 other charges, including rape, robbery, attempted murder and hijacking.

He is believed to be connected to a criminal syndicate operating between South Africa and Mozambique.

Exactly how he escaped from C-Max has not been revealed by prison authorities.

Some reports said Mathe apparently broke two steel bars from his bed which he wedged on either side of the window to help him slide his shoulders through.

He apparently took another steel pipe from his bed and made a hook. He then tied his clothes and bed linen to it and used that to slide out of the cell down a firewall.

In December, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said several prison officials suspected of helping Mathe were on suspension pending an outcome of an investigation.

Death row inmates given second chance

2007-01-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

Eight prisoners who have been behind bars for 20 years - some of whom spent time on death row in the 1980s - are going to be freed later in January.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour confirmed on Thursday that the eight former death row and life sentence prisoners would be released on parole and correctional supervision placement as they have served the minimum of 20 years. However, he declined to release their names.

Three prisoners were from Thohoyandou in Limpopo, two from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, two from Witbank and Middelburg in Mpumalanga, and one from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal.

He did not have the information at hand as to how many of the eight had had their death sentences commuted to life in jail after the death penalty was abolished in the late 1980s.

Balfour said the prisoners were now undergoing a one-month pre-release programme aimed at orientating them to life outside. "This is a programme aimed at integrating them to real social life.

"Once on parole with their families, they would get the shock of their lives as the world has changed. Some have never seen nor touched cellphones."

"The pre-release program-me includes anger management, behaviour and discipline. These are very important for them as prison life might have hugely affected their lives and way of thinking.

"Officials are now orientating them to know they will be in a world where there will be no bells calling them to four o'clock suppers, no orange uniforms and other prison stuff."

Balfour urged communities not to vent their anger on prisoners who had been released on parole as they were undergoing a very important social integration process.

"They have gone through the justice programme, served their time in jail and now it's their second chance for them lead a full and normal life."

Balfour recently had to address a crowd at a Hermanus township who refused to let two parolees return home.

"I was very happy when the people and the parolees ex-pressed themselves publicly. We left the place happy at seeing both parties having forgiven each other.

"I understand the reasons to be angry towards parolees, hence I beg people to be calm and accept them again …

"Please give them a second chance," Balfour said.

Yengeni's VIP crowd

2007-01-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

When Tony Yengeni drives away from Malmesbury Prison on Monday he will have pleasant memories of the many friends who visited him during his four months behind bars.

Yengeni is expected to leave the prison under correctional supervision on Monday.

It seems a rather large number of prison regulations were thrown overboard for the African National Congress's former chief whip.

Besides the visit by his wife, Lumka, on Christmas Day with a basket of goodies for him, Yengeni was also able to see luminaries such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.

Top-echelon visitors

Politicians who visited included Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, the Western Cape ministers of roads and public works Marius Fransman, and of social development Kholeka Mqulwana and ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha.

The acting inspecting judge of prisons, Judge Nathan Erasmus, and human rights advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC also called in at the jail.

Yengeni was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud, but, in terms of a presidential pardon in May 2005, he got 20 months off.

He was sentenced in terms of article 276 1(i) of the Criminal Procedure Act, which meant that, after serving a sixth of his remaining jail term, he could be considered for release under correctional supervision.

Welcome party planned

For various reasons, his time inside was reduced to just four months.

His jail term began with a triumphant march to Pollsmoor Prison on August 24 last year, accompanied by senior politicians.

Skwatsha says the ANC plans to welcome him when he is released and at his parents' Guguletu home.

But the visits Yengeni received in Malmesbury Prison are said to have flouted a number of prison rules.

Die Burger reported earlier that Yengeni, who was apparently regarded as a "political" prisoner by some correctional service officials, had 17 visitors - including his wife - on Christmas Day.

Despite protestations by the department of correctional services that Yengeni was not given preferential treatment, his family visits did not meet the department's specifications for his category of prisoner.

Other anomalies about his stay

According to the specifications for an A-category prisoner in a medium-security jail - like Yengeni - he should have received no more than two visitors at a time.

The department also claimed that its policy allowed Yengeni's wife to take food to him, as she apparently did on a regular basis.

But, in fact, the rules state that she could buy food for him only from the prison tuckshop.

Some other anomalies of his stay in prison were:
* her visits lasted up to three hours, instead of the specified maximum 45 minutes, five times a month;
* she was spared the embarrassment of being frisked, like all other visitors; and
* Yengeni was allowed out at 07:00 for a jog on the prison sports field, before other prisoners were up and about.

James Selfe of the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday he had sent questions to the minister of correctional services about the way prison rules apparently had been flouted.

"It is crystal clear that Yengeni was the ANC's favourite prison inmate," he said.

ANC MP and chairperson of the correctional services portfolio committee Dennis Bloem said earlier that any irregularities would be investigated.

Lukas Muntingh of the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative said that whether or not the allegations were true it was dangerous to create the perception that certain prisoners got special treatment.

"It not only affects the way the public sees the prison system, it also has the potential to create conflict inside our prisons.

Subject to conditions

"The department should do everything in its power to prevent such a perception from snowballing," he said.

Although Yengeni is due for release on Saturday, the parole board decided in October last year that he would be released on Monday, January 15.

Once he is out, Yengeni still will be subject to certain conditions imposed in terms of the correctional service laws, such as no abuse of alcohol nor long-distance travel without permission.

Release of former death row inmates outrageous

2007-01-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

The proposed release of 62 former death row prison inmates is outrageous, Sybil Seaton, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) spokesperson, said today. It was earlier reported that eight prisoners who were formerly on death row will be freed this month.

The prisoners are part of a group of 62, who have served their mandatory 20 year prison term. They were given an alternative life term imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished in 1995.

Today Seaton said she was dismayed and concerned at the news. "This is absolutely outrageous. The IFP feels that it is petty criminals, especially juveniles, who should be considered for release not people who are in prison serving life sentences for serious crimes," she said.

This came shortly after Ngconde Balfour, the correctional services minister, announced last year he was considering early parole for 300 lifers in an attempt to curb overcrowding in prisons. "The 300 prisoners will hardly make a dent in the overcrowding crisis South Africa is currently facing," Seaton said.

"There's clearly a serious management problem here. As crime spirals out of control in our country, we need more prisons but the department of correctional services is failing in this important task. Last year, they neglected to use the allocated money that was given to them to build new prisons, which is totally unacceptable," Seaton said.

Seaton suggested that if Balfour and his colleagues "are so desperate to ease the overcrowding problem", they should start by knocking on the door of Brigitte Mabandla, the justice minister, who in the past three years had done nothing to review the cases of 384 IFP political prisoners who had applied for Presidential Pardons.

"If she could start on that any time soon, maybe minister Balfour might have a few more prisoners he can set free in 2007," Seaton said.

Shaik medical parole absurd

2007-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Calls for convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik to be released on medical grounds were labelled on Monday as "baseless, absurd, silly, nonsensical and somehow opportunistic".

The organisation that is against Shaik's release on these grounds is the South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr).

Sapohr president Golden Miles Bhudu comments come after reports that former Sapohr KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Derrick Mdluli would be approaching Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour "to discuss pardoning Shaik from his sentence because of his ill health".

The Daily News in Durban reported that Mdluli would be meeting with Shaik on Monday. Mdluli could not be reached for comment.

Mdluli made the statements in his capacity as KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of a little-known organisation, the Justice for Prisoners and Detainees Organisation for Human Rights.

Bhudu said he questioned the organisation's authenticity.

Bhudu said: "We were aware all along about his close relationship with Mr Schabir Shaik, long before his conviction and imprisonment."

Shaik was admitted to St Augustine's renal transplant unit on November 24 last year under the alias "Mr Jones".

Shaik has spent, effectively, only two days behind bars.

Shaik was reported to have had a mild stroke shortly after being admitted to St Augustine's Hospital in Durban.

The Sunday Tribune reported last weekend that Shaik had undergone facial surgery.

Mo Shaik, Schabir Shaik's brother, said: "We are aware that he (Mdluli) had applied to get permission (to visit Schabir Schaik)."

However, he was not prepared on Monday to comment on Mdluli's statements to the media.

"We want to keep our mouths shut," he said.

Correctional services spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said no organisation could approach the department for a medical parole.

He said Shaik or his family would have to approach the department directly and "not through a third party".

He also referred to the relevant section of the correctional services legislation which said that an inmate could be considered for medical parole only if a person is "in the final phase" of a terminal illness in order that that prisoner may die a "dignified death".

Showdown at Pretoria Central

2007-01-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

Pandemonium looms at Pretoria Central Prison as inmates have threatened to burn it down in protest against the proposed relocation of prisoners.

In the letter, he gives in detail the action prisoners plan to take to thwart the shuffle (believed to begin today) of the medium A units and maximum security prisoners in G-Section (medium B).

A main group of offenders, working prisoners, have indicated they will bring a class action application to the Pretoria High Court on the following basis:
* The procedures of fair administrative justice were not followed;
* They work in the workshops or maintenance teams and live in single cell accommodation.
* The move means they have to be relocated to group cells, which cater for about 26 prisoners with “only one toilet that does not work, two showers and two basins”.
* They won’t get proper rest because of constant movement and noise in group cells.
* There is never warm water available in G-Section.
* As working inmates their visits will be compromised if they move to D-Section or G-Section because the intercom is not working.
* A-Section is not as secure as G-Section or D-Section. Medium category and working prisoners are going to be forced into maximum security units.
* It seems maximum prisoners will be receiving more consideration and benefits than the medium category and working offenders.

The working inmates said they would refuse to continue working under these conditions.

The maximum offenders are also not amused at the possibility of moving into a single-cell environment. They have simply threatened to incinerate the jail.

The Citizen visited the prison and spoke to two inmates, on condition of anonymity. They painted a chilling picture.

“Ngconde Balfour (Correctional Services Minister) usually refers to this place as a ‘centre of excellence’ but it is a centre of oppression,” said one inmate.

He said they were living in appalling conditions and given unsatisfactory food – half-cooked chicken and stale apples.

The other inmate said corruption was rife. “The guy now in charge of security here was involved in the disappearance of R90 000 but the incident was swept under the carpet,” he said. He alleged the money vanished from the prison’s tuck shop.

The two prisoners also said a certain black warder was racist toward whites. “There are many complaints about the woman (warder) but no action ever seems to be taken,” they said.

During the visit, four white visitors could be overheard complaining about the same warder. The two inmates said the problem was prison management, which, they said, was plagued by division and jostling for position.

When asked for comment, the Pretoria Central Prison director Bhuti Mchunu referred all our inquiries to the acting area commissioner Sibusiso Madlazi. According to Madlazi, if relocation were to take place, there would be “a valid reason for it”. But he declined to make further comments claiming The Citizen had conducted “unauthorised” interviews with the inmates.

Yengeni to be freed despite parole breach

2007-01-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni did contravene his weekend parole conditions, but will still be allowed to go home on Monday, January 15.

Yengeni was reported to have been drinking during a weekend when he was allowed to go home to prepare for his imminent release. He also arrived back at prison late.

This was while he was serving time for defrauding Parliament in the multi-million-rand arms deal saga.

In November last year Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour announced an investigation into Yengeni’s conduct, saying the detainee’s visitation and telephone privileges would be suspended for two weeks.

Balfour described this as “remedial and interim measures” to allow a departmental investigation to take place.

Balfour’s office had said it “deplored the breach of parole conditions by any offender”, and would propose “a strong measure be introduced to assist authorities in their decision to sanction and correct the misconduct and violation of parole conditions”.

Political parties and the SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights condemned what they saw as preferential treatment for Yengeni.

At the time of his early release he will have served under five months

Clerk ran business from jail

2007-01-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

A Pollsmoor Prison clerk was arrested on charges of dealing in stolen car parts and running an illegal business from government premises, said the correctional services ministry on Tuesday.

Ministry spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said the man was arrested with another suspect who is not a correctional services employee, but was allegedly staying illegally at the clerk's departmental residence in Pollsmoor near Cape Town.

"The second suspect is an ex-offender who has previous criminal convictions.

"The arrested official was subletting his departmental residential unit to the second suspect."

Kebeni said the clerk was due to appear in Wynberg magistrate's court.

Audit of departmental premises

Prisons Minister Ngconde Balfour said the security vetting of all staff by the national intelligence agency would be speeded up.

He said the department's residential policy would be overhauled, with staff given three years in departmental housing after which they would have to find their own accommodation.

An audit is to be carried out to find those illegally occupying department premises, illegally running businesses from them or subletting.

Those involved in illegal activities could face dismissal, said Balfour.

Roaring trade in jails

2006-12-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

AN assortment of knives, dagga, television sets, DVD players and cash was confiscated from cells in various Eastern Cape prisons during a crackdown by Correctional Services officials.

The department said the prohibited items had been smuggled into cells by prison guards who were bribed by inmates.

Inmates at the Mdantsane prison were found in possession of pornographic material, television sets, DVD players and music systems.

Correctional services department spokesman Zukisa Nduneni said raids had been carried out in Grahamstown, Fort Beaufort, King William’s Town, Stutterheim, Ngcobo, Dordrecht and Lady Frere last Thursday and Friday.

The operation formed part of Operation Vala, a festive season security plan launched by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour.

“The purpose of the operation is to ensure that security breaches by corrupt officials colluding with offenders are rooted out, especially during the festive season, which is usually a period with heightened prison-escape threats,” Nduneni said.

An official was found at Ngcobo prison who reported very late for work and was drunk.

Some inmates at Sada prison were found in possession of guards’ uniforms and shoes. The shoes were used for smuggling dagga and other drugs into cells. Clothing believed to be used by inmates to escape unnoticed was also found in cells at the prison.

“Unlawful relations between correctional officials and offenders are pursued for the personal benefits of both,” Nduneni said.

Officials found to be in contravention of departmental policies faced disciplinary hearings and dismissal, she said.

Litany of questions at end of a bad year for prisons

2006-12-23T08:08:00.000-08:00

IT HAS not been a good year for SA’s prisons. The correctional services department and its minister, Ngconde Balfour, have lurched from crisis to crisis in what must be the most “annus horribilis” on record.

Remember Judge Thabani Jali and his commission of inquiry into corruption, and other criminal activities, in the prisons service? In the more than three years of his inquiry he went from prison to prison taking evidence and compiled a report thousands of pages long. Small wonder the good judge left the bench for the private sector. Few things could have been more depressing than investigating our prisons.

The litany of abuses takes thousands of pages to record. They range from massive fraud in the medical aid claims department to the smuggling of firearms and drugs. Not to mention the trading of youthful members of the prison community as sex objects, and warders assisting inmates to escape.

One of the biggest problems found was that almost the entire senior structure of the department was in the pocket of the Police and Civil Rights Union (Popcru). Jali recorded that Popcru planned who would get which jobs from within the department and recommended that steps be taken to put distance between senior staff and the union — such as establishing a separate bargaining council.

When the department reported to Parliament on progress made with Jali’s recommendations, it made available a summary of Jali’s executive summary. Curious that. The 180-page report of Jali became 60 pages from the department. Jali immediately complained that some key recommendations had been omitted. Sustained public pressure led to the department making the entire report available on its website. After all, public money funded the probe into a vital cog of the criminal justice system, which is designed to keep the public safe.

Did the department think that the MPs were idiots and could not read 180 pages, or was there another motive?

In recent months there have also been suggestions that high-profile prisoners with African National Congress (ANC) connections get preferential treatment in prison. Despite Balfour’s vigorous assertions that there is only one rule for prisoners, it remains a fact that both Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik followed in the footsteps of Allan Boesak and were transferred to apparently safer prisons on the day they reported to prison.

Now the minister is studying a report from the area commissioner and the parole board on whether or not Yengeni broke his parole conditions during a weekend pass. He has had it for almost a week. There were press pictures of Yengeni drinking — a violation — and press reports that he left his home after he was supposed to have been back at Malmesbury prison, apparently another. What’s to study?

Then, of course, there have been the serious allegations that a company with ANC connections virtually wrote the tender specifications for an IT contract worth R237m. How nice if we could all write the tender specifications for top government contracts, because we could exclude the competition.

Sondolo IT won the tender. Beeld and Die Burger reported that Titus Mafolo, President Mbeki’s political adviser; Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for the foreign affairs department; Gavin Watson, CEO of Bosasa, who reportedly is also a longstanding acquaintance of correctional services commissioner Linda Mti; and Seth Phalatse, the former chairman of the Strategic Fuel Fund, are connected to Sondolo IT. To my knowledge there has been no response to these allegations despite calls for a formal investigation.

Then consider the incident that has caused serious red faces at prisons. Ananias Mathe, a seriously bad guy facing multiple murder, rape and burglary charges, managed to escape from Pretoria’s C-Max prison. Not only is the prison deemed to be country’s most secure, but Mathe was housed in the special section reserved for those prisoners deemed to be escape risks. He could not have done it on his own. He has been recaptured, but how did he escape in the first place?

How does Balfour and the department respond? By spending more than R650000 of our money to take a double-page spread in the Sunday Times to say what a good job is being done and what improvements have occurred under Mti. If the message had been what was being done about, among other things, Yengeni, the Sondolo tender, and Mathe, the media would have published it for free. I know the media stand accused of never telling the good news stories, but this is ridiculous.

South Africa's most-wanted caught

2006-12-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

South Africa's most-wanted criminal has been captured two weeks after escaping from a top security jail near Pretoria.

Ananias Mathe, 29, from Mozambique, was detained last December on more than 50 charges, including murder and rape.

He stabbed a security guard in the eye with a screwdriver after being cornered in a house. He was then shot three times in the leg and captured.

Police describe him as "the ultimate criminal" and launched a huge manhunt for him when he escaped.

At one point during the hunt, the police shot and wounded a clergyman by mistake after a member of the public identified him as the escaped prisoner.

National police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said Ananias Mathe stole a car fitted with a tracking device, and the security company that had installed it followed with the help of a helicopter.

He abandoned the vehicle near a squatter camp north of Johannesburg in the East Rand.

He was found in a house and captured by security guards after a struggle.

Ananias Mathe is the first prisoner to escape from the C-max prison since it opened 36 years ago.

He reportedly escaped by covering his body in Vaseline and squeezing through his tiny cell window which measured just 20cm by 60cm (8in by 2ft).

Mr Mathe, who is said to have had extensive military training dating in Mozambique, first escaped from custody in April 2005.

Shortly after being returned to the prison, a minister said he would leave again for an urgent operation.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said he would be taken to a hospital for an operation to fix the shattered bone in his leg which was wounded during his arrest.

In charge of R9bn - with matric

2006-12-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

The man who has managed the R9bn budget of South Africa's prisons for the last two years, has nothing more than a matric qualification.

Beeld and Die Burger reported on Friday that Patrick Gillingham, who as the financial head of the department of correctional services (DCS) runs the finances of Africa's biggest prison department, has no tertiary qualifications.

Gillingham's post was advertised nationwide last Sunday, and the DCS has confirmed that Minister Ngconde Balfour has now appointed him chief deputy commissioner: corrections.

The move has resulted in other staff changes. Tebogo Motseki, who is in the post at present, becomes the head of central services and Jenny Schreiner moves from the latter position to become chief deputy commissioner: management services.

Informed sources said Balfour had "started to feel the heat", and that was why he moved Gillingham.

A Beeld investigative team earlier named Gillingham as the DCS person who was regularly seen on the premises of the Bosasa group of companies in Krugersdorp.

Various companies in the Bosasa group, including Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing, tendered for and won multi-million rand contracts from DCS in the past two years.

Beeld and Die Burger revealed on Thursday that various high profile South Africans, such as President Thabo Mbeki's political adviser, Titus Mafolo, were shareholders of Sondolo IT.

James Selfe, the DA's spokesperson on correctional services, said on Thursday he would have expected someone better qualified to run a multi-million rand budget.

The DCS budget is comparable to the market value of major companies, such as the insurers Mutual and Federal, or Sanlam.

"I don't know what courses he completed in the public service that could qualify him for this job.

"The department (DCS) has received five qualified audits in a row. That says how unsuitable Gillingham is for the post," Selfe said.

The DCS refused to respond to Beeld's queries about Gillingham's qualifications.

The advertisement, which appeared in various Sunday newspapers, said it was essential that Gillingham's successor should have a B. Comm in accounting.

Gillingham is known to have been a confidant of Linda Mti, the former national chief jailer, who left the service on Thursday.

Beeld and Die Burger disclosed the ties between Mti and Bosasa this year, such as the security tender of R237m for an access system at the country's jails, which was awarded to Sonolo IT, after the Bosasa group wrote much of the tender specifications for DCS.

Mti is being investigated by the Public Service Commission, while the Cobra's special unit is investigating the DCS's Bosasa tender process.

Mti's acting successor will be announced by Balfour on Friday.

The DA asked again how much had to be uncovered before Balfour would appoint a commission of inquiry into the way tenders from the Bosasa group were treated.

"The minister must show the nation that he is serious about fighting corruption in his department, by appointing a commission of inquiry to investigate these underhand transactions," Selfe said.

DCS spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said Gillingam's move was part of Balfour's efforts to take "service delivery to a higher level".

Balfour must look into tenders

2006-12-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

The DA has called on Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to institute a commission of inquiry to investigate claims linking high-profile South Africans, including President Thabo Mbeki’s political adviser, to tender irregularities within the department.

This follows a Beeld report which named high-profile individuals owning shares in Sondolo IT, which is part of the Bosasa group of companies that wrote large parts of a multi-million rand security tender subsequently awarded to them by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) for R237 million.

They include: political adviser to Mbeki and former ANC MP and chairman of the controversial Native Club, Titus Mafolo; Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa, CEO of Bosasa and long-standing acquaintance of outgoing prisons chief Linda Mti, Gavin Watson, and former chairman of the Strategic Fuel Fund Seth Phalatse, who resigned after allegations of corruption.
Phalatse’s wife Lorato is head of Mbeki’s office.

Sondolo IT, since its registration on February 10, 2005, has been awarded tenders of almost R500m by the DCS, Beeld reported.

DA spokesman on Correctional Services James Selfe asked: “How much needs to be revealed before Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour institutes a serious investigation into the allegedly irregular and underhanded tender arrangement between his department and Sondolo IT?"
Selfe called on Balfour “to show the nation he is serious about fighting corruption”.

Mathe kept cards close to his chest

2006-12-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

Annanias Mathe, the high profile escapee from C-Max prison, would not easily have shared escape details with other prisoners.

According to criminologist Anna van Hooven, whoever helped Mathe, though, could still help other prisoners to repeat the feat if correctional authorities did not prevent them from doing so.
Van Hooven said yesterday that it would seem that Mathe had a psychopathic nature “and these people are generally very selfishly oriented and egocentric.”

She said Mathe would therefore not easily share his knowledge or contacts with other prisoners as he was only focused on himself.

Mathe’s breakout has sparked a media frenzy and he is still on the run, more than a week afterwards.

Minister for Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour has said there is no way Mathe could have escaped without “some degree of collusion” with prison officials.

Van Hooven said it certainly was an “embarrassment” for correctional authorities for him to have escaped from a maximum security facility.

The police also have some egg on their face, in her opinion, after they twice arrested people who turned out not to be Mathe. One of these was a church pastor, who was allegedly shot in the leg by a plain-clothes policeman.

Last week a special task team, consisting of police, prisons and national intelligence officers, was set up to look for Mathe.

They will also investigate whether anyone at C-Max can be held criminally responsible for his escape.

The easy way out

2006-11-20T23:11:00.000-08:00

Fifteen awaiting trial prisoners who escaped from the Komatipoort Prison on Saturday are being sought by police, Mpumalanga police said.

"When police came to the cells the next day, they found only five of 20 prisoners inside," Superintendent Mtsholi Bhembe said on Monday.

The fifteen men used a cutting tool to cut through the bars of the cell window.

It is unknown how they managed to obtain a tool strong enough to cut through the bars.

"It is difficult to say how they got their hands on it, people visiting sometimes smuggle things in but we don't know for sure how they got the tool," said Bhembe.

The charges the escapees were facing ranged from murder to the theft of firewood.

"They were facing a number of charges including armed robbery, murder, dealing in dagga, housebreaking and theft of firewood," he said.

The men are still at large but police were "positive" they will be found.

"We appeal to the community to come forward if they have any information on any of the men but we are positive that they will be arrested."

Annanias Mathe, 29, a "dangerous" detainee awaiting trial, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max prison also on Saturday night.

Mathe appeared to have mysteriously uncuffed himself, climbed through several small windows after breaking them, and forced himself out onto the roof of the prison.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Monday a task team would be set up to investigate management at Pretoria's C-Max prison.

"Nobody can ever just take off handcuffs and saw his way through anything and nobody takes notice of that. So, there must be some investigation that's done and people charged for that," he told the SABC.

High-ranking ANC members get treated better

2006-11-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour's assurance in the National Assembly that disgraced former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni was not receiving special treatment, has been met with scepticism.

Yengeni's prison records show that until the day before his controversial weekend release last week, he was a category B prisoner, and thus not entitled to such privileges.

The morning before his weekend pass, Yengeni was reclassified as a category A prisoner - only two and a half months after he reported to jail on August 24.

He was reportedly released at 9am on Friday, two hours before the official 11am release time for prisoners allowed out for the weekend.

He was approved eligible for weekend pass when he appeared before the parole board. His release date was then set for January 15.

Yengeni was originally set to be released in 2010.

But because of a six-month presidential amnesty to certain prisoners and a further three months off his jail term for an unspecified "good deed", he will effectively serve just over four months.

But despite Balfour's insistence that Yengeni was being treated like any other prisoner, former Pollsmoor warder turned Independent Democrat organiser Shaun August said Yengeni was receiving special treatment.

"He's a high-ranking ANC member. They always get treated better. He was transferred to Malmesbury Prison and given a hospital cell when inmates with far more serious complaints are on the waiting list for beds."

In comparison to other prisoners Yengeni was getting five-star treatment, August said.

Yengeni's wife and ANC MP, Lumka, denied reports that she had threatened to sue Balfour for the removal of her husband's rights for him arriving late at prison and being photographed at a party with a beer bottle in his hand.

Yengeni, Schaik in safe cells

2006-11-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

Fraudsters Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik are languishing in hospital cells, says an ex-con, because rich prisoners often are kept there where they are less likely to be robbed or raped.

Former African National Congress chief Whip Yengeni is prone to hay fever and that, apparently, is why he is being kept in a hospital cell at Malmesbury Prison.

Businessman Schabir Shaik, former financial advisor to ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma, also is in a hospital cell, at Qalakabusha Correctional Centre in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, because he apparently is ill.

Correctional services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela, told a radio audience on Tuesday morning that Yengeni had "respiratory problems", but Volksblad has heard that "he has hay fever".

Wolela did not want to disclose what Shaik's illness was, but his brother, Mo, said recently that Shaik had high blood pressure.

Wolela said neither Yengeni nor Shaik was receiving preferential treatment in prison.

Not so, says former convict Gayton McKenzie.

He claimed correctional services often placed wealthy prisoners in hospital cells because there was less chance of them being robbed or raped.

In the national assembly, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour came under fire on Tuesday, with opposition parties claiming that Yengeni was being given special treatment.

Responding to Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, Balfour said:"This country has 243 prisons, and a prison is a prison, and nothing else." "We try our best to rehablitate everybody who is admitted to a correctional facility. We try to rectify offending behaviour.

"We will do the same with him, and he will be treated no differently from anyone else in our centres."

Balfour said in response to James Selfe of the Democratic Alliance, that he regarded allegations that "offender Yengeni" had broken his weekend parole conditions in a serious light.

That was why he had called for an urgent inquiry into the allegations.

Earlier, Selfe had told the portfolio committee on correctional services that the Correctional Services Act determined that such an offence (Yengeni apparently arriving back at jail late) was regarded as absconding, and was punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment and/or a fine.

Balfour told parliament: " There is one rule and one law for offenders.

"If it is determined that Yengeni broke the code of conduct for weekend parole, then the requisite steps that are built into the system of corrections will be activated and these questions will be dealt with properly," he said.

Dennis Bloem of the ANC, who chairs the portfolio committee, said the committee would ask for a copy of the report on Yengeni's alleged breaking of parole conditions.

If necessary, he would recall commitee members during the parliamentary recess, which begins on Friday, to discuss the report.

Yengeni loses some privileges

2006-11-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni has had his prison privileges curbed pending an investigation into allegations that he breached his weekend parole conditions.

Yengeni is alleged to have consumed alcohol and returned late from his parole to Malmesbury Prison.

Speaking in the national assembly on Thursday, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said he had taken serious note of the allegations of the violation of the weekend parole conditions by "offender Tony Yengeni".

Because of allegations that Yengeni had violated his parole conditions at the weekend the department had instituted certain measures.

Pending the investigation of these, Yengeni would forfeit all privileges related to visits by his family and close associates for two weeks.

He also would forfeit the privilege of using the phone to communicate with family, friends and colleagues for the same period.

Balfour said it should be noted that this was not a punitive measure, but conditions that would ensure the investigation was not hindered.

After the investigation, recommendations emanating from the probe would be considered and appropriate steps or actions taken.

"The department deplores and condemns breach of parole conditions by any offender and will ensure parole conditions are respected and observed at all times by every offender and family member.

"There is only one policy regarding the conduct and treatment of all offenders and this has to be enforced and respected and its integrity protected at all times," said Balfour.

No one bothered to get our side of our story

2006-11-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Tony Yengeni's wife, Lumka, defended her husband on Wednesday, saying he was not an hour late after his weekend parole and had not drunk alcohol despite photographs showing a beer bottle in his hand.

President Thabo Mbeki, meanwhile, was spared having to answer questions about the convicted former ANC chief whip, after a question related to Yengeni in the National Assembly was ruled out of order.

Given Mbeki's reply to a question in October that "we should always seek to defeat those engaged in fraud and corruption", DA leader Tony Leon wanted to ask whether he believed that Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad's send-off for Yengeni on the day he was jailed was appropriate.

However, the National Assembly Speaker ruled the question out of order, saying it should rather have been put to Pahad, who should account for his actions.

"The President should generally therefore not be asked about the conduct of ministers," a letter to the DA from Parliament's question office said.

Lumka said on Wednesday: "Everyone who knows Tony will know that he does not drink beer. What does the bottle of alcohol in one's hand, in one's yard, where there were so many people drinking, say?

"I could have had that bottle in my hand - were you going to say I was drinking? It could have been a (different story) if that bottle was moving towards his mouth."

Yengeni was photographed with a beer bottle in his hand having a good time with friends in his backyard on Sunday. He arrived late at Malmesbury prison after having been allowed out of jail on a weekend pass ahead of his release on parole in mid-January.

"There is a project to portray Tony as this reckless and unruly character who does not have any regard for rules and who breaks rules indiscriminately. No one bothered to get our side of our story," she said.

Lumka, an ANC MP, said although her husband did arrive late at the prison, it was by less than an hour. She had duly informed prison authorities in accordance with regulations governing her husband's weekend parole.

"I was called in to sign documents of his parole. There was a line that said if for any reason he could not arrive (in prison) on time, there had to be communication with the prison authorities. I have done that.

"It is not a fact that he was an hour late. He might have been late, but not an hour late and this was properly communicated," she said.

In a letter to newspapers, she said: "There has been a lot of false and distorted reports about (Yengeni's) parole conditions ... Tony spent the weekend at home with family and friends. It is a fabrication and malicious lie that Tony violated any of the parole conditions.

"The sensationalism in the media about his parole conditions is not based on facts, but rather on a sustained propaganda to portray Tony as having no regard for the laws of the country, and those of Correctional Services."

The parole board is investigating Yengeni's alleged violation of his parole conditions and some MPs have raised concerns that, if he was given preferential treatment, it could send wrong signals to the public.

Lumka said: "I welcome the alleged investigation into his conduct."

Escapism to keep prisoners in jail for Christmas

2006-11-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Department of Correctional Services plans to keep prisoners from escaping over the festive season by involving them in so-called "offender escapism".

"Operation Vala", to be launched in East London on Friday, will see the tightening of security measures in prisons around the country while channelling inmates' attention towards recreational and sporting activities, according to Luphumzo Kebeni, national spokesperson for the department. "Vala" is isiZulu for "tightening".

Kebeni said the department routinely increases prison security during the festive periods, as escape attempts tend to escalate around this time.

He said recreational programmes continue throughout the year and are an important departmental focus, but added that this is the first time an official plan will be launched.

"There is a conception, a misconception, that there is a lull in correctional services in the festive season," Kebeni told the Mail & Guardian Online, adding that the launch of this programme is also meant to sensitise communities to the department's efforts.

He explained that community and family members often smuggle contraband into prisons to assist inmates with their escape plans.

An initiative like Operation Vala will "encourage and motivate offenders to actively participate in recreational and sports activities whilst we are also raising public awareness and mobilising communities against the temptation to assist or harbour offenders on the run", a departmental statement said.

"Without official awareness or community support, it [the plan] won't work," Kebeni told the M&G Online.

He conceded that lax and corrupt security personnel are also partly to blame for prison escapes, "but those [people] are just a few elements". Kebeni added that increased security measures, such as the use of cameras, have helped to apprehend such individuals.

Explaining the link between an increase in recreation and a decrease in prison breaks, Kebeni said: "If you don't escalate and encourage issues of recreation, they [inmates] will just sit and do nothing and obviously think of criminal things, including escaping."

He said the Department of Correctional Services is hoping that the kind of "recreational escapism" provided through Operation Vala will divert inmates' attention away from criminal ideas. "It gives them a platform to rechannel their attention to more constructive activities."

The plan to keep inmates occupied will comprise a range of indoor sporting and recreational activities, including volleyball, cricket, soccer, table tennis, chess and boxing. The department also intends to limit outdoor activities, as these could influence inmates' thoughts of escaping, Kebeni said.

The plan also includes "beefing up security" with the emergency security task team, a specialised unit within the DCS that will increase spot checks and monitor security, especially in more vulnerable areas such as kitchen and hospital sections.

Kebeni said added safety measures are provided though the prisons' biometric security systems, which use camera surveillance, identity codes and motion detectors.

A public education operation will also be conducted through crime-awareness sessions and door-to-door and walkabout campaigns, in conjunction with the South African Police Service.

Operation Vala, which was formulated internally, will be implemented by existing prisons personnel, Kebeni said. All the necessary recreational equipment is to be donated, and the programme's "motivational and coaching sessions" will rely on volunteers, such as prominent personalities and ex-offenders who have since excelled in sport.

The campaign will be launched by Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour and deputy and regional commissioners at the Mdantsane Correctional Centre in East London on Friday.

Mti blames it on the media

2006-11-16T01:43:00.000-08:00

Outgoing Correctional Services Commissioner Linda Mti on Tuesday portrayed himself as the victim of a media smear even though police have confirmed that he was arrested for drunken driving.

Mti, who received an ovation from MPs on Tuesday, said the media had twisted the incident that took place in Johannesburg earlier this month.

He was reported to have been involved in a car accident while under the influence of alcohol, to have refused to co-operate with police and to have used the status of his office.

Johannesburg police reportedly confirmed Mti's arrest for drunken driving and said that he would appear in court in January next year.

Mti on Tuesday blamed the media for distorting the accident "as if I'm an irresponsible commissioner".

The future security chief of the 2010 World Cup, Mti, vented his feelings for the first time in the National Assembly's Correctional Services committee meeting.

He intimated that he was sober.

"For me to leave my office at half past four and be involved in an accident at half past five and I'm supposed to be so drunk within an hour. For me to be portrayed as if I crashed into somebody's car when I literally balanced and removed paint, and when you're exchanging numbers with somebody, you are told that you were actually imposing yourself as a commissioner. No media tried to get any statement from me. The story ran for four days," he said.

He said that having survived bullets during the struggle, he was not going to be destroyed by the media and Correctional Services had made him a better leader.

MPs loudly applauded Mti.

The IFP's Sybil Seaton wished Mti the best for the future despite "bad publicity".

The chairman of the correctional services committee, Dennis Bloem, thanked Mti for his contribution to the department.

However, another member of the committee who was not present - the DA's James Selfe - contradicted Mti. He told Independent Newspapers later that the person who had been involved in the accident with Mti was known to the DA's chief whip Douglas Gibson.

He said he had submitted parliamentary questions to the Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula regarding the details of Mti's arrest.

Last week Mti resigned and he is expected to leave his office at the end of this month to head the 2010 security directorate.

Yengeni's jaunt could cost him

2006-11-16T01:39:00.000-08:00

Parliament's correctional services committee has vowed to hold both the parole board and prison officials to account if disgraced African National Congress (ANC) heavyweight Tony Yengeni's alleged parole violations are not properly investigated.

Yengeni last weekend enjoyed a two-day parole, but he was allegedly more than an hour late for his 3pm return to Malmesbury Prison on Sunday, and also apparently consumed alcohol while on parole, which is forbidden.

Yengeni's weekend parole caused an outcry from opposition parties, and Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour expressed "disappointment and unhappiness" with his behaviour.

It also emerged at the committee's meeting yesterday that Yengeni's jaunt could be very costly for him, as the Correctional Services Act treats a late return from parole as "absconding", and if the inmate is found guilty, provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the offence.

The committee, under the chairmanship of ANC MP Dennis Bloem, also agreed to look into allegations that there was preferential treatment in prisons for people such as Yengeni and Schabir Shaik.

Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe told the committee that according to the law governing prisons, arriving late from parole was an offence, which was punishable upon conviction with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He said it was intolerable that there was one set of treatment for the rich and another for ordinary people.

In response to Selfe in the National Assembly, Balfour said he took the allegations of parole violations very seriously and that was why he had called for a speedy report.

Balfour promised that if Yengeni was found to have violated his parole, he would be dealt with in terms of the law as would any other prisoner who had done the same.

He promised that there were no "VIP prisons in SA".

Balfour saddened by Yengeni

2006-11-14T01:17:00.000-08:00

Ngconde Balfour, the minister of correctional services, says he is saddened by the alleged breach of parole conditions by Tony Yengeni, the former ANC chief whip. Balfour would not comment any further and referred all inquiries to Manelisi Wolela, the department spokesperson, who was not available for comment.

Although not confirmed by the correctional services, parole conditions prohibit alcohol consumption. Yengeni appears on front page of The Star holding a bottle of beer in the company of friends at his Cape Town home.

Yengeni, who was released on weekend parole on Friday, arrived back at Malmesbury prison yesterday about an hour late. He should have been back at the jail by three in the afternoon. It is not clear what consequences he face.

Correctional services say a committee will sit soon to consider the alleged breach of parole by former ANC chief whip.

Friendly arithmetic

2006-11-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

Opposition parties have reacted with disgust to the news that convicted former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni is spending the weekend in the comfort of his Milnerton, Cape Town, home - but senior ANC leaders in Western Cape gathered for a celebratory get-together with their friend on Friday night.

Yengeni has served less than three months of a four-year sentence for fraud. But friendly arithmetic by the department of correctional services is likely to ensure that the disgraced ANC bigwig will be released early in the new year.

Sapa reports the department of correctional services as saying yesterday that Yengeni will be released on parole on January 15.

Manelisi Wolela, a spokesperson for the department, said Yengeni would have served one-sixth of his sentence by January 13, making it possible for it to be converted to correctional supervision.

"It's not really a release, it's a conversion of sentence under section 276 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

"Though he will be at home with his family, he will finish his sentence within the community and will be continuously supervised by correctional officers."

Where and how the community service would be done had not been decided, Wolela said.

Yengeni was sentenced to four years in prison.

In May last year, all prisoners convicted of non-violent offences were given a 20-month presidential amnesty, so Yengeni's sentence became 28 months. In January Yengeni will have been inside for about four months, leaving 24 months to be served.

"One-sixth of that is just about four months," said Wolela, "and everybody who was sentenced for crimes other than murder before June last year will benefit from [the amnesty].

"It's not just Yengeni who will be released, but because he is a public figure people are talking about it," Wolela said.

According to a well-placed source, ANC leaders, including secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha, met Yengeni on Friday night to express their continued support for him. But on the other side of the political divide, the politicians were less welcoming.

Koos van der Merwe, the Inkatha Freedom Party's chief whip and spokesperson on justice, said: "There is a perception that rules are being bent to suit prominent ANC people."

Van der Merwe said he had written to Ngconde Balfour, the correctional services minister, challenging him to rebut that perception.

Golden Miles Bhudu, of the South African Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights, is planning a deluge of requests for "home leave" for prisoners throughout the country.

Bhudu said such visits were to allow prisoners to get used to the outside world - but Yengeni, he said, "had not even been allowed to get used to prison".

"This whole matter indicates that preferential treatment is the order of the day.

"Maybe Schabir Shaik too will soon enjoy weekend breaks."

What a hell of a guy!

2006-11-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

National correctional services commissioner and former Port Elizabeth struggle veteran Linda Mti has resigned from his job amid controversy – to take up a post as head of security for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Mti is under investigation for drunken driving and is also accused of irregularly benefiting from the department‘s procurement deals.

He was recently slammed in Parliament for having received a performance bonus of more than R30 000 while his department had received qualified audit reports for the past five years.

However, the correctional services department yesterday denied his resignation had anything to do with the accident or an investigation by the public service commission.

Mti, who was last month re-elected vice president for Africa of the International Corrections and Prisons Association, yesterday declined to comment and referred The Herald to the department‘s communications office.

Department spokesman Manelisi Wolela said Mti had resigned after being head-hunted by Fifa to head the 2010 World Cup security team “more than six months ago”. Wolela said Mti would leave the department at the end of the month and then take a holiday before starting his new job.

He said the department and its executive management committee saluted Mti for the critical role he had played in the transformation of the department, “from the quagmire of its apartheid legacy to its status as a leading player in offender corrections and rehabilitation in South Africa and (Africa)”.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said Mti had given “nearly 30 years of productive adult life to . . . liberating, defending and developing the people of his country”. He was also credited for leading the transformation of prisons in Africa into rehabilitation-centred correctional facilities.

However, the Democratic Alliance welcomed Mti‘s resignation. Spokesman James Selfe said that under Mti the department had been characterised by mismanagement and prisons had remained overcrowded, corrupt and violent.

South African Prisoners‘ Organisation for Human Rights president Golden Miles Bhudu said Mti had done the honourable thing if he had voluntarily resigned, which was long overdue, “as he was going to be axed in any event”.

Mti was involved in an accident last Thursday, in which he smashed into the rear of another car.

Yengeni out of jail for weekend

2006-11-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

While Schabir Shaik spends his first weekend in jail, another prominent jailed South African, Tony Yengeni, has a weekend pass to spend two days with his family at home.

Eleven weeks after beginning his four-year jail sentence for fraud, Yengeni is a free man this weekend.

The former ANC chief whip is on his first parole weekend, and will be on parole every weekend - including the Christmas and New Year weekends - until his release. He is expected to be a free man in just more than two months.

On Saturday and Sunday he will be with his family, confined to his Milnerton home in Cape Town - a sure sign that he has a firm release date. He is expected to be released under correctional supervision on January 15.

Parole review board head Judge Siraj Desai said that if the parole board at Malmesbury Prison confirmed Yengeni's release in January, this would be "entirely consistent with policy" and not a sign that Yengeni was receiving preferential treatment.

The decision on whether to release Yengeni on parole would not be made by the Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, but by the local parole board, which would also decide on the conditions of his parole.

Should he violate any of the weekend parole conditions, however, he will be back in jail, and should there be any objections, these could be lodged with the minister, who would then refer it to the parole review board, Desai said.

The Department of Correctional Services said it released on weekend parole 80 to 90 offenders a month who had received a date for release under correctional supervision.

A total of 22 offenders benefited from this in the Western Cape this month, with three this weekend alone, spokesman Manelisi Wolela said.

They were Yengeni, Wynand du Toit and Jan Conradie.

This is because the three men were all sentenced under Section 276 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Act that provided for conversion of sentences into community corrections after serving only a sixth of their sentences as inmates.

Yengeni also benefited from a 20-month amnesty announced by President Thabo Mbeki last year for all prisoners serving time for non-violent crimes.

Another correctional services spokesman, Luphumzo Kebeni, said Yengeni appeared before the Malmesbury case management committee at the beginning of the month and it had recommended he be freed early next year.

"That has not been approved or finalised because it still has to be endorsed by the parole board," he said.

Kebeni said it was not a foregone conclusion that Yengeni would be released because "occasionally" the recommendations of the case management committee were turned down by the parole board.

The parole board would only know how many cases it had by the end of this month and would then start looking into it.

Yengeni's lawyer Marius du Toit said last night: "I'll be glad for Tony if he's released in January. Let's hope it happens."

While he'd had no direct contact with Yengeni since he had been jailed, he had been in contact with Yengeni's wife, Lumka, and family.

Parole plan is no answer

2006-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

Overcrowding of prisons is a vexatious problem for both the government and civil society. On the one hand the government seems to have neither the budget nor the will to build sufficient jails to hold all the criminals the justice system sentences for punishment and re-habilitation; on the other, most people demand that criminals be removed from the society they have injured in some way for a proper period of time.

Thus it is hardly surprising that Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour's plan to release 300 long-term prisoners on parole has hit a wall of objection from the victims of violent crime, who are trying to organise themselves into a body to fight the plan.

Announced by Judge Siraj Desai, chairman of the National Council on Correctional Services, the plan is for the early release of more than 300 prisoners serving life sentences and who have served at least 15 years. Already identified, the prisoners will not be released all at once, but will be evaluated as to when and how they should be freed.

But Rob Matthews, whose daughter Leigh was kidnapped and murdered by a fellow university student, has called for everyone, especially victims of crime, to object to the plan as it made a mockery of the justice system.

The government has released prisoners before and lost credibility because far too many of them were brought back before the courts within days or months of their release, having returned to their criminal ways.

The problem with the release of long-term prisoners is that the feelings of victims, whose lives have been severely affected by the crime, simply seem to be ignored.

There is no easy fix for the problem. Most prisons are hopelessly overcrowded, which promotes gang-sterism and other antisocial behaviour and makes rehabilitation extremely difficult, but simply releasing prisoners who have yet to pay their full debt to society is not a satisfactory answer.

Mti hasn't got 2010 job

2006-11-10T03:28:00.000-08:00

The local organising committee (LOC) of the 2010 Soccer World Cup denied that former correctional services commissioner Linda Mti had been appointed head of security for the tournament.

Mti left his post as the country's prisons chief after months of sustained pressure on him to resign.

The department of correctional services announced that Mti was leaving to take up the post of head of security for the tournament.

Department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said Mti had been approached by the LOC, and his appointment was confirmed several months ago.

However, LOC spokesperson Tumi Makgabo denied this, saying Mti was being considered for the post, but discussions and negotiations were continuing and nothing had been decided yet.

The post of security chief had been widely advertised and Mti had not been approached by the LOC, Makgabo added.

Mti's resignation, which was approved by the cabinet, follows a tumultuous year during which Beeld revealed his links with contractors who had landed contracts worth millions of rand with his department of correctional services.

Beeld learnt that Mti wanted to quit seven months ago, after his relationship with the Bosasa group was disclosed.

Beeld's sources said he had apparently burst into tears at a meeting with the top management of the department of correctional services.

On March 31, an investigation found that an employee of the Bosasa group of companies had registered a private company for Mti.

Two companies in the Bosasa group, Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing, had landed contracts worth nearly R1bn since April last year.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) subsequently launched an investigation into Mti's private dealings and the special inquiries unit (the Cobras) announced they were looking into the approval of the Bosasa contracts.

Mti denied any ties with Bosasa, or improper conduct.

Humphrey Ramafoko, PSC spokesperson, said it had not yet been decided how Mti's resignation would affect the inquiry, which would continue.

Mti's financial management of his department was criticised in August by parliament's select committee on public accounts (Scopa).

Every year since Mti's appointment in 2001, the department of correctional services has been given a qualified audit report by the auditor general.

The chief jailer was also in the firing line this week when it was disclosed that he was arrested last week by Johannesburg police for drunken driving. The case will be heard next year.

I'm under siege

2006-11-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

Effusive but unapologetic, outgoing Correctional Services national commissioner Linda Mti says he is "very honoured" to be appointed head of security for the 2010 World Cup, and claims he is unfairly "under siege" by a critical media.

Mti officially resigned from the government and confirmed that he had accepted a post to head security arrangements for the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC).

He would not go into details surrounding his arrest on a drunken driving charge last week. Eyewitnesses claimed he was so drunk that he fell to the ground and "slept in the sand" after causing an accident.

Instead, Mti complained that his side of the story had been ignored "for four days".

His troubles, however, do not end with the drunken driving charge and his impending court appearance in January.

On Thursday, the Public Service Commission (PSC) said that they were still busy with an investigation into allegations that Mti benefited from Correctional Services tenders worth R800-million.

Mti was named in a Beeld report as the director of a company linked to three other firms that apparently benefited from department tenders worth R800-million.

Mti's Lianorah Investment Consultancy had the same physical and postal address of Pehezulu Fencing, Sondolo IT and Bosasa, which had landed the contracts. Mti has vehemently denied the allegations.

LOC spokesperson Tumi Makgabo refused to either confirm or deny that Mti had accepted the top security job for the soccer spectacular.

She said his appointment was still awaiting finalisation and it was impossible at this stage "to say yay or nay".

The cat was let out of the bag with a press release from Mti's colleagues at Correctional Services who hailed his "steadfast, visionary and caring leadership".

Mti said that he had "been through hell" during the past four days.

"I'm not able to think straight. People have been writing about me without bothering to phone me for the past four days.

"That's why I'm keeping quiet and leaving everything to my lawyer," he said.

He added that the decision to go to the LOC had not been his, but a directive from the government.

"The consideration of going to 2010 was not mine. I was asked to go to that portfolio a year ago.

"On a personal note I feel honoured, both as an individual and as a South African."

He added that he would be making a full statement on the appointment, and presumably the allegations against him, after consulting with Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour.

Mti was arrested after crashing his VW Touareg into another vehicle during rush-hour traffic in Sandringham, Johannesburg.

Abe Mashile, whom Mti allegedly crashed into, said Mti was unable to stand up straight and was slurring. He added that Mti had "slept in the sand" while waiting for police officers to arrive.

Do you know who I am? You can't do this me

2006-11-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Commissioner of correctional services Linda Mti was arrested for drunk driving this week after he crashed into another motorist during peak-hour traffic in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, he managed to escape ending up on the wrong side of cell bars.

Several police spokesmen have refused to confirm the accident, or explain why Mti was not locked up and brought before a court by Friday morning, as is legally required.

Abe Mashile, a driver for a public relations company, said he had been on his way home in Alexandra when the driver of a VW Touareg smashed into him from behind in Sandringham, damaging his vehicle.

"We both stopped to assess the damage. When he got out of his car, he could not stand up straight and he was slurring.

"He said to me, 'do you know who I am? You can't do this me'. I was only trying to get his details for insurance purposes because I need my car to get to work every day."

Mashile said someone had called the police, but while waiting for officers to arrive, Mti literally fell to the ground and "slept in the sand".

"When the police came, he woke up and told them, too, who he was. But they arrested him and just put him in the back of their van."

A source said a drunken driving charge had been logged at Sandringham police station but, inexplicably, the name of the person involved had been omitted from the register.

Mti has been released on a warning and it was unclear when he would appear in court.

A mockery of the justice system

2006-11-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

Victims of violent crime need to stand together, hold government accountable and protest against the proposed early parole of prisoners serving life terms.

Rob Matthews, father of university student Leigh Matthews who was kidnapped and murdered by fellow student Donovan Moodley, is calling on citizens to object to the early release of convicts who have been jailed for life.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour is to endorse a plan by which more than 300 "life" prisoners, who had served 15 years, were being considered for parole, it was announced on Thursday.

This emerged at a high-level meeting between correctional services authorities, parole officials and some judges. The move was said to be an attempt to curb overcrowding in prisons.

Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai, also chairperson of the national council on correctional services, said 300 prisoners serving life sentences who could be considered for early release had already been identified.

"They will not be let out in one group, that's not on the cards. What is on the cards is an evaluation of the various prisoners, offenders, and how and when and if they should be released," he said.

Matthews slammed the move, describing it as "a mockery of the justice system and demotivating for the detectives who broke their backs to get a good conviction only to have their hard work done away with by the arbitrary early release".

Matthews said he planned to do what he could, "say what I need to say" and appeal publicly for support in objecting to the proposal.

"It's now time for victims of crime to stand up and be counted. I don't know one victim who would condone this. It is high time that the authorities considered the victims and their feelings.

"Has anyone considered canvassing the people whose lives were severely impacted by those 300 identified prisoners?" Matthews said.

Matthews has commissioned research studies and said there had been a lack of success in the United Kingdom when prisoners were released on early parole.

"They found that rehabilitation is extremely difficult to assess," he said, explaining that it was "easy (for a convict) to say sorry once they are caught, and easy to manipulate their freedom by indicating that they have been rehabilitated".

"But if it is possible for someone to be successfully rehabilitated, why pass a life sentence in the first place? It is well-documented that sociopaths and psychopaths are not capable of being rehabilitated."

Desai said: "Some people will not be released for whatever length of time they have served, until they no longer constitute a danger to society - people with very serious cases of murder and child rape."

He added that an avalanche of applications for parole from prisoners who were terminally ill was expected.

Previously, prison authorities were left red-faced after some of those who were released on early parole were later rearrested for committing other crimes.

Matthews has called the application process into question.

"Is there going to be transparency on how these 300 were identified? How will (government) deal with allegations of corruption?

"Psychological assessments of awaiting trial prisoners are being put on hold because there aren't enough beds available. How will this new process slot in?" he asked.

Matthews pointed out that there were many convicted criminals who were currently serving lesser sentences than life, and asked why these people were not considered ahead of life sentence convicts.

"Life is life. If this (proposal) goes through, the message is that government is not serious about crime and holding offenders accountable. Rehabilitation is secondary. Accountability has to be primary," he said.

Correctional services face a tough challenge in light of amendments to current laws that now allow for investigating officers, prosecutors and victims families to testify at parole hearings.

Lifers up for parole

2006-11-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

More than 300 prisoners sentenced to life behind bars and who had served 15 years could be considered for parole.

This emerged at a high-level meeting between correctional services authorities, parole officials and some judges. The move was an attempt to curb overcrowding in prisons.

Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai, also chairman of the National Council on Correctional Services, said they had already identified 300 prisoners serving life sentences who could be considered for early release.

"They will not be let out in one group, that's not on the cards. What is on the cards is an evaluation of the various prisoners, offenders, and how and when and if they should be released."

Desai said those who did not meet the requirements would be referred for further rehabilitation before being given a second chance.

"Some people will not be released for whatever length of time they have served, until they no longer constitute a danger to society... people with very serious cases of murder and child rape," said Desai.

A decision to release them would have to be endorsed by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour. He said they expected an avalanche of applications for parole from prisoners who were terminally ill. Some of these were already threatening to take the department to court to force it to release them on medical grounds.

Balfour said each application would be carefully examined. Previously, prison authorities were left red-faced after it emerged that some of those who were released on early parole were later rearrested for committing other crimes.

Prison blight

2006-10-31T02:14:00.000-08:00

It’s no good employing more policemen to put more criminals away if our prison system is completely dysfunctional.

Recent reports suggest that the system is, at the very least, in need of intense and urgent attention. Medium-term budget figures during the week showed the correctional services department has had to give about R800m back to the national treasury, two-thirds of which is unspent because the department can’t fill vacant positions. The rest of the underspending relates to prisons budgeted for but not built — an issue that goes back as far as 2002, when cabinet approved plans to build four new prisons as part of a broader crime-fighting strategy. None have even gone out to tender yet and overcrowding in SA’s existing prisons grows worse with each passing day.

But overcrowding, with its inhuman consequences, is only one of the many horrors detailed in the report of the Jali commission of inquiry into alleged incidents of corruption, maladministration, violence and intimidation in the department of correctional services. Though the full five-volume, 1000- page commission report has yet to be released, transparency was finally served, at least in part, when the 185-page executive summary was made available to parliamentarians and the public. That came after former high court judge Thabani Jali protested strongly at correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour’s initial decision to release only an edited 60-page version, which left out some of the recommendations.

Those with delicate stomachs might prefer not to read the unexpurgated version, because the picture the Jali report paints of SA’s prisons is unrelentingly bleak. It’s not just about the gangs that dominate prison life, or the sexual violence perpetrated against vulnerable inmates, or the leaky prison security, but about the extent to which prison warders and senior prison management are embroiled in all of this — and the degree to which corruption and abuse are institutionalised in the system. It’s about warders selling prisoners as sex slaves to the highest bidder and using prison workshops and supplies to run their own businesses. It’s about dangerous inmates who are allowed to escape multiple times while those who complain of abuse are likely to be thrown into solitary confinement. It’s about prisons being used to punish, rather than as punishment in themselves. The report details theft and corruption in a whole range of departmental activities. And it shows how procedures are subverted in areas such as parole and disciplinary hearings.

Nor can the rot be attributed entirely to SA’s apartheid history, as Balfour has suggested recently. Rather, the report finds that efforts to restructure the prison system post-1994 are as much to blame. Particularly disturbing is the role played by Congress of South African Trade Unions-affiliated union Popcru, which represents nearly two-thirds of correctional services staff, include 95% of prison management. Popcru, Jali found, had a deliberate strategy of manipulating the department and gained huge influence over hiring and firing, one result of which was that many people appointed to senior positions were not qualified.

The scope of the commission proved to be almost too wide. Its recommendations, which cover 17 sets of issues from trade unionism and gangs to procurement and logistics, require careful scrutiny. The Jali process, which began when the commission was appointed five years ago, has already yielded important results. Many prisons employees have already been charged with corruption and other offences and the commission’s investigations have helped to open up the secretive prison system, highlighting the need to tackle abuses.

Balfour said last week that 60% of the commission’s recommendations were already being implemented. We need to know a lot more about what he is doing to tackle the mess. Where nothing is being done, we want to know why. What goes on in SA’s prisons ultimately affects all citizens, and government must be called to account for a system that is not only a blight on society but is undermining efforts to fight crime.

Popcru too powerful

2006-10-29T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Jali commission of inquiry has slammed the inordinate power it says is exercised by the Cosatu prisons affiliate Popcru in the administration of prisons.

The full executive summary of the findings of former judge Thabani Jali was released by the correctional services department after a storm of protest over the sanitised version handed to Parliament recently.

Also underscored by the report is the systematic nature of corruption and maladministration in prisons and the alleged indifference of the department and its officials to sexual abuse in correctional facilities, which it warns may spread HIV infection.

Unsurprisingly, the prevalence of gangs in prison is also highlighted. Jali’s team found that Popcru had, through what it called “Operation Quiet Storm”, attempted to influence the strategic direction of the correctional services department.

“Secret meetings were held to orchestrate to which senior positions Popcru members should be appointed and so infuse Popcru influence on the department,” says the report.

The Popcru plan included amassing the power to determine who should be appointed as national commissioner and influencing the recruitment at the lowest levels.

Among its recommendations is that managers should give an undertaking that they will not be influenced by or drive the trade union agenda.

Reacting, Popcru spokesperson Boiki Tsedu said his union was not apologetic for being strong and influential.

The release of the full executive summary represents a major climbdown by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour. The official explanation for the earlier watered-down version was that it was potentially defamatory of officials named in it, and that releasing it in its pure form would expose the department to lawsuits.

On the prevalence of sexual violation among prisoners, the commission describes such abuse as one of the major ills of prison life and berates correctional services for indifference to prison rape.

“If the department keeps on ignoring the fact that sexual abuse is rife in our prisons and that there is an extreme likelihood that prisoners who are exposed to violent unprotected sex will in all likelihood contract Aids, then it is effectively, by omission, imposing a death sentence on vulnerable prisoners.”

Also highlighted are the department’s super-security prisons, such as Pretoria’s C-Max, which the commission believes should be closed down because they are unconstitutional.

It says: “The super-maximum prisons are institutions of solitary confinement and torture and cannot assist in the efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and correct their behaviour. They also cannot be justified in terms of the Constitution, the Correctional Services Act, the regulations or departmental policies.”

It will come as no surprise to prison watchers that the commission found that “corruption and maladministration was so rife in most management areas investigated as to warrant describing this as part of the institutional culture.

“There was a group of employees who featured in almost all the incidents of corruption and maladministration and who are predominantly driven by greed and the need to make easy money. Some of the incidents were systematic and not mere isolated incidents of corruption.”

Among the lesser malpractices was the fact that a prisoner at a KwaZulu-Natal jail had a traditional healer’s practice and was even allowed to keep his medicines in a storeroom, to which he had keys.

The commission recommended that the department institute a study that would culminate in an anti-gang policy.

“To restrict the influence that gangs are able to exert over newly arriving prisoners, the commission recommends that the department undertake the classification and separation of awaiting-trial prisoners into first offenders, repeat offenders and gang members,” it said.

Unresolved management issues

2006-10-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

The beleaguered correctional services department has had to surrender almost R600m to the national treasury because it is unable to fill budgeted vacant posts.

The department has been in the headlines recently following a row between Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour and former judge Thabani Jali over the editing of his report into prisons corruption. It has also received three consecutive qualified reports from the auditor-general in the past three years.

The adjustment estimate shows that the troubled department will have to return R799,2m. Most of this is due to failure to fill vacant posts. The vacancy rate is aggravated by the department’s high staff turnover.

Also surrendered to the treasury is an amount of R197m from the department’s capital budget because of delays in building new prisons.

This is because feasibility studies have not been done and “because of some (unresolved) management issues between the client and the implementing agency”.

Millions meant for four new prisons unspent

2006-10-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

Despite assurances by the Department of Correctional Services that four new prisons are on track, the Treasury has confirmed that millions of rands for their construction has been surrendered to the national revenue fund.

The new prisons in Leeuwkop, Nigel, Klerksdorp and Kimberley were first announced in 2002, but it appears unlikely that they will be built.

The Treasury's Cor Haak told the National Assembly's correctional services committee that the department had given about R800-million to the national revenue fund.

Haak was presenting an overview of the department's budget and expenditure trends as well as its 2005/06 annual report performance and the auditor-general's report.

Of the R800-million in unspent funds, he said that R600-million was meant to be used to compensate employees, but those vacancies could not be filled. A total of R200-million was the saving after the "non-delivery of prison space".

Haak said that all the funds meant for the new prisons, with the exception of funding for the Kimberley prison, had been surrendered to the national revenue fund.

Money from the fund can only be handed out by the Treasury.

Haak said that the expiry date for the awarding of the contract for the Kimberley prison had come and gone on October 19, and that he had heard from the press that the contract for its construction had not been awarded yet.

He told MPs that if the contract had not been awarded for Kimberley, then the money was still with the department.

The delayed construction of the four new prisons has been dogged by controversy after it was first reported that the department had used the funds for the project to refurbish existing facilities.

Then in August, the Treasury told MPs that the department had put the cart before the horse and put out tenders for building the Kimberley prison before a feasibility study had been done.

The department is expected to appear before the correctional services committee on Tuesday, and MPs have indicated that they have plenty of questions for officials in light of Haak's presentation.

Haak's presentation also produced a detailed graph of the department's expenditure pattern, which showed a massive spike in spending in March, before the end of the 2005/06 financial year.

Balfour doctored prison report

2006-10-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Former High Court judge Thabani Jali has accused Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour and his department of doctoring his report on fraud, corruption and organised crime in SA's prison system in their submission to Parliament.

Jali's claim centres on Balfour's and the department's handling of his commission's five-volume report, compiled over more than three years at a cost to the taxpayer of R27m.

The department submitted a 61-page summary of the voluminous report to Parliament. The main report is some 1,000 pages long, with a 180-page executive summary, which the department further condensed for Parliament.

The department claimed before the parliamentary correctional services committee that some of Jali's findings were inaccurate, but assured Parliament that 60% of Jali's recommendations had been implemented.

Jali said that the recommendations in his report had been very detailed, but that most of this had been left out of the version the MPs saw.

"The recommendations for the provision of antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive prisoners have been omitted." "Recommendations on the office of the Inspecting Judge, money belonging to prisoners which has not been accounted for, and the issue of producrement, were also omitted from the document," he said.

During a meeting of the committee, Balfour himself took aim at Jali for failing to recognise much of the positive work being done in his department. The row between the minister and Jali will raise questions about the state's willingness to accept the outcomes of independent investigations that criticise it.

The relationship between the department and the committee charged with oversight of its functions could be further strained by the report's release.

Jali's work exploded into the headlines some three and a half years ago when he uncovered a litany of irregularities at Bloemfontein's notorious Grootvlei prison. These included fraud, corruption, the sale of juvenile inmates for sexual favours, as well as drug and gun-running.

The former judge said that nothing should be kept secret and called on Balfour to release the full report, with all of its key recommendations.

What is really going on in South African prisons

2006-10-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

In 2001, the Jali Commission started its inquiry into alleged incidents of corruption, maladministration, violence and intimidation in the Department of Correctional Services.

It is now 2006 and the report of commission, named after Thabane Jali, the chairperson of the commission, has been publicised.

Ngconde Balfour, Minister of Correctional Services, said that 60% of its recommendations are being implemented.

Balfour said he welcomed the commission's findings and recommendations, as they affirmed the department was on the right track in building an ethical and secure system, leaving no space for fraud and corruption.

Balfour also said that the department sought to build an "ethical and secure correctional system, whose culture repels fraud and corruption, as they threaten lives of people inside and outside of our facilities".

He further added that "considering the legacy of our secretive prison system, there is still a long way to go".

But, what details are to be found in the commission's report? And how, exactly, is the department implementing the recommendations made in the commission to safeguard both the South African public as well as the 160 213 prisoners in South African jails?

The Jali report discovered what was really going on in the Department of Correctional Services and in South African prisons, as well as unpacked what strategies are being implemented to combat the disturbing findings.

The findings, as well as evidence and recommendations, were organised thematically, some of the prominent matters being: gangs, super-max prisons, prison security, treatment of prisoners, sexual violence in prisons, overcrowding, sexual harassment and the abuse of power.

Gangs
Gangs are a very powerful force in prisons and play a significant role in corruption and violence. They are an ongoing threat to the functioning of prisons, according to the commission.

It was even suggested that gangs are, in fact, running some prisons.

Being in a gang "makes inmates into men rather than boys" and divides inmates into men and women. Gangs alleviate some of the pains of imprisonment such as idleness, boredom, institutionalisation, powerlessness and even sexual frustration.

In the Western Cape, gang activity is rife on the streets and in prisons and there is a relationship between the street gangs and prison gangs that reinforces drug smuggling in prisons.

The commission found that department members often took bribes to turn a blind eye to sexual abuse, gang violence and thefts and were sometimes complicit in illegal activities. Evidence showed that some members of the department even belonged to prison gangs.

The department is developing an anti-gang and anti-rape strategy, while a new-offender disciplinary code and procedure was adopted in 2003 and is being rolled out.

According to the department, the total number of incidents of offender-on-offender violence (which includes gang-related violence) reduced from 4 492 in 1995 to 1 531 in 2005.

Super-max prisons
The commission found that super maximum prisons such as C-Max are institutions of solitary confinement and torture and cannot assist in the efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and correct their behaviour.

But Balfour rejected this recommendation, saying there is no way the high-tech, secure facilities would be disbanded.

"C-Max prisons still need to be there. There are those who are a danger to society and need to be kept very secure," he was reported as saying in the Star on Tuesday.

The imprisonment policy in its current form is unlikely to survive constitutional scrutiny for much longer under the Constitution, which seeks to protect basic human rights, the report said.

Sexual violence
Department members either ignore or possess "a shocking lack of empathy and sensitivity" to "the horrific scourge of sexual violence that plagues prisons", according to the report.

It was found that when a young prisoner at the Medium A Prison Grootvlei in Pietermaritzburg reported that two prisoners had sodomised him, instead of receiving support, he was then sodomised by the warder in the first of many such assaults.

"If the department keeps ignoring the fact that sexual abuse is rife in our prisons and that there is an extreme likelihood that prisoners who are exposed to violent, unprotected sex will in all likelihood contract Aids, then it is effectively, by omission, imposing a death sentence on vulnerable prisoners."

According to the department, all newly appointed officials are sensitised during the basic training at the colleges about the types of offenders they will be working with, and human rights training forms part of the orientation and training of officials.

Overcrowding
Overcrowding is a major challenge for the department because it exacerbates the problem of corruption and maladministration, affects the rehabilitation of the prisoners and encourages sexual abuse of inmates, the report states.

The commission found that, sometimes, 60 prisoners had to share one toilet and sleep two in a bed whilst others sleep on concrete floor, occasionally with only one blanket to share. In some prisons, like Bizana (in the Eastern Cape), prisoners were sleeping in shifts.

But while the prison in Bizana was found to be 400% full, there was a prison 80km away that was only 7% full. This is a product of mismanagement said the commission.

Overcrowding is a result of the manner in which parole is dealt with by officials (which has not been producing the desired results), an increase in the number of sentenced prisoners and a high number of awaiting-trial detainees, the report said

The department said that the number of awaiting detainees had declined by 13% from 55 000 in 2003 to 47 000 in 2006, while the number of sentenced prisoners number declined from 131 715 to 112 878 within the same period.

Sexual harassment and the abuse of power
The commission found that three female employees of the department were sexually harassed by a senior official. He made suggestive comments and sexual advances, touched them inappropriately and kissed one of them.

However, he was never disciplined, but "promoted" to the provincial commissioner's office shortly after the complainants had laid their charges, a clear message to these women that they would not believed. The women were also subjected to a torrid time, both in the investigation of their complaints and to victimisation in their working environment.

The complainants alleged that instead of being assisted by the department, they were victimised to the extent that one of them decided to resign, another had to be medically boarded and the third, who decided to remain in the service, was subjected to disciplinary proceedings and ultimately dismissed by the department.

The department says it has professionals such as social workers and psychologists, who deliver services around the prevention of, response to and support of rape and sexual harassment.

Lax security in prisons
The commission was disturbed to hear evidence of prisoners who for a fee, could "disappear" from prison and/or escape.

It also found that the department does not do enough to ensure that staff who aid in these escapes are severely punished.

One such warden charged prisoners who were incarcerated for armed robbery (because they usually have the money to pay) between R10 000 and R200 000 to arrange an escape at Johannesburg Prison.

At its Port Elizabeth hearings, the commission heard of a prisoner who had escaped from prisons in the Eastern Cape on at least six occasions, assisted by members of the correctional services.

It was no surprise that this inmate had required the name "MacGyver" because it soon became clear that, very much like the television character of a TV series in the 80s, he most certainly, by escaping from some of these places, committed things that are humanly impossible.

To counter lax security at prisons, biometric access control (a person registers with the system when one or more of his physical and behavioural characteristics are obtained) with walkthrough metal detectors, scanners and CCTVs have been introduced in 66 prisons and the system is to be rolled out to all other prisons over the next three to four years.

The commission also recommended a prison ombudsman to prevent corruption within the department. It said the department has always had an anti-corruption unit, yet this has not been effective in dealing with the problems. The opinion of the commission was that there should be an outside agency (prison ombudsman) to look into the issue of corruption.

But the department will not be implementing this recommendation, arguing on Tuesday that the ombudsman would be unnecessary given that the department complies well with a Cabinet directive on fighting fraud and corruption.

Nothing has been summarised and nothing has been distilled

2006-10-21T05:13:00.000-07:00

Members of parliament, presented with an executive summary of the Jali report on correctional services instead of the full report, objected that this limited their oversight role.

But in presenting the 60-page summary, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour assured MPs it was not a "distilled" account.

The chairperson of the correctional services committee, Dennis Bloem, took issue, saying that being given a summary instead of the full report affected the committee's ability to exercise its oversight role effectively.

Bloem said if they did not have the full report, it would be difficult for committee members to monitor implementation of the commission's findings and recommendations.

The long-awaited report was handed to president Thabo Mbeki in November 2005 and followed an extensive investigation into corruption and poor administration in correctional services.

Headed by then-judge Thabani Jali and appointed in August 2001, the commission investigated allegations of corruption in the services.

The commission produced an executive summary and a report of about 3 500 pages that filled five volumes. The transcription of all the hearings was about 95 000 pages long.

Balfour said that the executive summary of the Jali report had been released on the instructions of the president.

The original report contained the names of those implicated in wrongdoing and, in the light of litigation processes, the report was released without their names.

He respected parliament's oversight role, Balfour said.

He said that the findings contained in the original report had not been tampered with.

MPs were also told that 48 investigation reports implicating 109 members of the department in wrongdoing had been prepared in response to the Jali commission's findings on misconduct. Although 125 members had been implicated, many cases could not be pursued because of a lack of evidence or witnesses had died.

Panic buttons in prisons

2006-10-21T03:17:00.000-07:00

C-Max prisons were institutions of torture and therefore unconstitutional and should be banned, according to the long-awaited Jali Commission report.

However, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour shot down this recommendation, saying there was no way the hi-tech secure facilities would be disbanded.

"C-Max prisons still need to be there. There are those who are a danger to society and need to be kept very secure."

The recommendation to do away with the prisons that kept inmates like former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock separated at all times was "not feasible", Balfour said.

The commission found that the C-Max prisons in Pretoria and Kokstad were institutions of "solitary confinement and torture" and could not assist in efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and correct their behaviour.

"They also cannot be justified in terms of the constitution, the Correctional Services Act, the regulations or departmental policies," according to commission head, the now former Justice Tabane Jali.

The 1 000-page report which has been in the hands of the presidency for a year will be tabled in parliament on Tuesday and will be discussed by the national assembly's correctional services committee.

The commission recognised the pressure the correctional services department was under to build more such prisons as it tried to wrestle back control from powerful gangs who dominate regular detention centres.

However, it warned that they would not "survive constitutional scrutiny" for much longer under the new constitutional and democratic order that seeks to protect basic human rights.

Meanwhile, Balfour told reporters that panic buttons may soon be installed in prison cells around the country in a bid to protect inmates from other inmates.

In an attempt to curb the high level of sexual violence and crime in prison, Balfour said such alarms could soon be installed in communal cells, as part of plans to beef up prison security.

Director general's report card

2006-10-20T03:31:00.000-07:00

The Correctional Services Director General, National Commissioner Linda Mti, has had another busy year. When he, or his officials, were not denying that he was implicated in getting his company to tender for contracts to build jails, or that he had quit to join the local organising committee of the 2010 World Cup, his department's lawyers were doing their best to ensure that judges' injunction that prisoners be given antiretrovirals was ignored, and that the media were prevented from touring prisons, despite being invited by the parliamentary portfolio committee.

Mti was named in a Beeld report as the sole director of a company linked to three other firms that benefited from department tenders worth R800-million. Mti's Lianorah Investment Consultancy shared the physical and postal address of Pehezulu Fencing, Sondolo IT and Bosasa, which had landed the contracts.

But as busy a year as it was, Mti has little to show for all the attention he has had. In his defence, the department, having reluctantly accepted the wisdom of the Durban High Court, announced that it would test 12 500 inmates and officials to determine the extent of the HIV/Aids and syphilis prevalence in jails.

Beyond that, the department remains in denialist mode. There is still no acknowledgement of the extent of rape inside prison, which makes testing for HIV/Aids a half-measure when the likelihood of vulnerable inmates acquiring the virus is ever present.

Mti and his political bosses' defence over the years -- that prisons are merely the reflection of their society -- is half-baked. It is incumbent on a system that calls itself correctional to find measures that are just that.

Days of fraud over

2006-10-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

The days of fraud and corruption in his department were over and those found guilty would be dealt with without fear or favour, correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour said.

"We seek to build an ethical and secure correctional system whose culture repels fraud and corruption, as such acts threaten [the] lives of people inside and outside of our facilities," he told the national assembly's correctional services committee.

Considering the legacy of South Africa's "secretive" prison system there was still a long way to go.

"However, we are certain that never again will anyone peddle fraud and corruption with impunity in our facilities, because he/she will definitely be caught and dealt with without fear or favour.

"There is overwhelming evidence that this is not a threat, but a reality in correctional services today," Balfour said.

He was briefing the committee on the Jali Commission's final report on its probe into irregularities in the department.

Balfour said never before in the history of prisons and corrections in South Africa had the current level of confluence of positive developments been seen.

Although the commission seemed largely to have missed this, it did acknowledge the impact of leadership and management interventions over the past few years.

Mothers and chilren in prison

2006-10-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services would visit prisons in Gauteng. "The main purpose of this visit is to address the problem of overcrowding," said committee chairman Dennis Bloem.

Bloem said that two of the problems contributing to overcrowding, and which were often linked, were convicted mothers and their children and petty criminals.

In the South African prison system, convicted mothers were allowed to keep their children with them in prison until the age of six.

Bloem said that the results of the probe into the Eastern Cape found that prisons were crowded with petty criminals and juveniles who could not pay R100 bail.

The committee had "serious problems with bail being granted to suspects with very serious offences" because they could afford it, said Bloem.

An inside job

2006-10-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

Heads are expected to roll after the finalisation of the investigation into the burglaries into the ministerial homes of Naledi Pandor, the education minister, and Ngconde Balfour, the correctional services minister, in Cape Town.

This warning was given by Vish Naidoo who heads the VIP Unit of the South African Police Services. Naidoo says their preliminary investigations have shown that no forceful entry was gained into the homes. Naidoo says with the stringent security at the entrances of the complex, it is unlikely that it could be a person or persons from outside.

The investigation is expected to be finalised quickly to enable tough action to be taken against those responsible for the break-ins. Additional security measures for government buildings and ministerial houses are standard practice among the VIP Protection Unit.

Valuables were removed from both homes including laptops, DVDs and cell phones. The ministers were not home at the time, and were reported to be in Gauteng during the parliamentary recess. Naidoo says from preliminary investigations they have established that the outer parameter fencing of the area appears to be intact. "So our investigations is moving from the premise that it maybe somebody who has access to that environment that could be possibly responsible to committing these crimes, because access control at the particular gate is extremely strict and stringent."

Balfour should thank E-tv

2006-10-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

Raymond Louw, the deputy chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, says E-tv, an independent television station, was acting in the public interest by gaining entry to the ministerial home of Ngconde Balfour, the correctional services minister, in Cape Town.

E-tv says it was an honest attempt to test the security at the homes of government ministers, following burglaries at Balfour's residence and that of Naledi Pandor, the education minister.

Balfour is considering laying charges against the station. Louw says Balfour should rather be thanking the station.

The television station said it stood by its report on security at Balfour's home.

Balfour to sue e.tv

2006-10-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

The Minister of Correctional Services, Ngconde Balfour, will sue free to air channel, e.tv, for trespassing and invasion of privacy, following a report on the burglary of his house.

"This follows entry of e.tv crew into Minister Balfour's house at the Grootte Schuur Ministerial Estate, Rondebosch, without his knowledge and permission," said ministerial spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni.

"The e.tv news footage, juxtaposed with malicious comments, publicly displayed details of the Minister's house interior during its news broadcasts."

Kebeni said the news report also misled the public by claiming that one of the men involved in the burglary was recently released from prison through the minister's special remission of sentence.

"There is no basis for this as the criminal investigation by police is still underway."

Adopt-a-convict program launched

2006-09-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Another way in which the South African taxpayers' money is hard at work. The regime is collecting signatures for a petition urging people to be nice to ex-convicts. Who are they going to hand this petition to? Themselves?

The Correctional Services Department is on a massive campaign to make the re-integration of offenders into society a national effort.

In this regard, the department is collecting a million signatures in Bloemfontein, the Free State on Wednesday, led by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour and the Chairperson of the Moral Regeneration Movement Smangaliso Mkhatshwa.

The signature campaign is part of Operation Masibambisane, an initiative to create platforms and avenues of interaction with various provincial government structures, local government councils, civic and traditional structures, to enhance community involvement in the rehabilitation and social integration of offenders.

In his budget speech in May, Minister Balfour said his department wanted to completely erase that tainted past from people's minds and replace them with new experiences and knowledge that empowers them to be victors, champions and drivers of transformation instead of victims, losers and passive followers of efforts to make South Africa a safer, secure and a better place for all.

Signatures collected will be used to determine the support of people wanting to take part in the rehabilitation of offenders. The signature campaign will be carried out throughout the country.

Criminals could get their slates wiped clean

2006-09-27T03:51:00.000-07:00

South Africa is becoming a haven for criminals. They have tough week of shows, music and sports ahead. To top it off, the regime is trying to figure out how to do away with criminal record keeping.

Correctional Services is a “place of new beginnings where we strive towards bringing humanity to incarceration and drive towards making rehabilitation the centrefold of all our work”. That is according to director Willie Pretorius, who was addressing those attending the launch of Correction Week at Johannesburg’s biggest prison, “Sun City” yesterday.

The event was in line with the nationwide activities scheduled by the department of Correctional Services to take place throughout this week. Activities scheduled throughout the country include stage shows, choral music and sports tournaments.

“A completely new face of Correctional Services is being portrayed for the first time throughout these campaigns,” he said. Pretorius said correctional services is not about punishing the offenders but changing their behaviour and making them fit in society once they are out of prison.

According to him, as part of successfully rehabilitating offenders, a directorate has been established to look at the possibility of decriminalising those who’ve been rehabilitated for the purposes of finding employment. “It’s the challenge the department is facing, but we are looking into that.”

Walter Phello, a former convict now working for Khulisa, said it was a good step the department was taking but pressure that discouraged inmates from changing is huge inside. “The pressure is not only put by inmates and warders but also the screening and the Z83 form when trying to find employment,” Phello said.

Nice work if you can get it

2006-09-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

Ngconde Balfour, the Minister of Correctional Services, said 738 members of his department had been suspended on full pay in the 2005/6 financial year, costing the taxpayer over R34-million.

Naked women attracts the minister's attention

2006-09-15T02:20:00.000-07:00

Only in South Africa - prisoners protesting about being moved to another jail. Their bare-bottomed cheek has paid off. The minister will take time off from his busy schedule to ogle (sorry that should read 'see') them.

A group of about 50 women in the Mthatha prison has revived a unique tradition by staging a naked protest, or setshwetla, against plans to move them to Queenstown.

The prison chief, commissioner Linda Mti, said the and correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour would address the women at the Mthatha prison on Friday.

"These women decided to get undressed as soon as we tried to move them to Queenstown to make room for men in the maximum security prison," said Mti. "It caused a lot of drama, because we were not expecting it. We hope the minister can use his persuasive powers to get them to move to Queenstown," she said.

Golden Miles Bhudu, president of the South African Prisoner's Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) said he was "very excited" about the women's protest action, because it was something prisoners used in the eighties to protest against the apartheid system.

He said women started with the protest at the end of last week, but since Friday also decided to go on a hunger strike.

The prisoners' transfer to Queenstown, about 250km from Mthatha, would make it difficult for their families to visit them.

A local resident said there was no public transport between the two towns and one had to take three different taxis to travel between them. It apparently also made it difficult for warders as trial awaiting prisoners had to be transported to Mthatha for their court cases.

Sapohr and the warders said the transfer had been decided on without consulting those involved.

Too many prisoners, too few guards

2006-09-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Another story about the state in proudly South African jails. Note that it deals with just one of the nine provinces.

The department of correctional services has lost effective management of its Eastern Cape prisons, especially Middledrift, and many are on the brink of collapse. These findings were made by the portfolio committee on correctional services in a report debated in parliament.

The report came almost two years after similar findings made by the department's national directorate of inspections in 2004.

The findings of the inspectorate provided a detailed account of how the department's management - from regional to national levels - had neglected Middledrift.

Among the findings - "which were also previously reported by the provincial inspectorate but yielded no improvements" - were those which showed that a number of correctional policies had been breached:
# panic buttons were not available in the offices of female officials;
# the movement of prisoners was not properly controlled;
# cells were not clean and tidy and the conditions were unhygienic;
# security gates were not kept locked and closed at all times;
# one official was in possession of all the keys to unlock the cell doors;
# vehicles were not searched when entering or leaving and the gate was not manned at all times;
# there was no proof that prisoners were allocated social workers;
# the physical infrastructure was deteriorating; and
# prisoners wore civilian clothes and jewellery with prison clothes.

In 2004, the prison - which was built to accommodate 411 prisoners - had 1 223 inmates.
It is mow overcrowded by 1 550 inmates. It is supposed to have a staff complement of 258, but has 180.

Parliament has ordered Linda Mti, the director-general of correctional services, to submit previous reports within 14 days of the inquiries into Middledrift.

Dennis Bloem, chairperson of the portfolio committee, told parliament that Eastern Cape prisons had reached a stage where safety, human dignity and physical care were being compromised. He urged Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to release people imprisoned for petty offences.

The committee found that a woman in the East London prison had been held with her two children - "one a few months old" - for more than 12 months for stealing baby shoes valued at R99. East London Prison which is supposed to hold 1 828 inmates was holding 2 040.

St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth had 5 100, but was meant for 2 923. Gangsterism was rife at the prison. An official was stabbed to death by an inmate, an incident believed to have been a gang initiation. This had a traumatic effect on staff. Drugs and other illegal substances are smuggled into the centre, often by staff and members of the public.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

2006-09-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

A bunch of female prisoners goinh au naturel in protest at being moved to a prison that might inconvenience their visitors. It has been conveniently timed to coincide with start of the South African spring. Might be a little nippy out there. This one protest that will be enjoyed by some, in this case the male prison guards. And if some of the inmates are a little obese, things will improve as the protest drags on.

Fifty female inmates who stripped naked to protest against being transferred to another prison intend stepping up their action by going on a hunger strike, a prisoners' organisation said on Friday.

Golden Miles Bhudu, spokesperson for the South African Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr), said the protest started on Thursday at Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. It was sparked by a pending transfer to another prison further away from the prisoners' families.

He said the transfer was in contravention of the Department of Correctional Services' policies, which require that prisoners be held as close as possible to where they will live after being released.

Female inmates were told they would be transferred to a prison in Queenstown to open up space for almost 100 of their male fellow offenders. The women will not wear any clothing nor eat anything until the order to transfer them has been revoked. This is because family members will find it difficult to travel for visits.

Balfour in shock after 'freak accident'

2006-09-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

How do you crash a three ton 4x4 hard enough to pop the airbags, while reversing? This does not make sense. The explanation given makes even less sense. And it was the airbags that saved our minister's skull, not the bull bar!

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has escaped unhurt after his state vehicle hit the perimeter wall of the Groote Schuur Ministerial complex in Cape Town at the weekend.

Balfour's spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said the accident happened inside the complex following his return from the Drakenstein Correctional Centre in Paarl.

He had driven to the gate of the complex to pick up his son Joshua, 13, when he reversed to drive back to his residence.

According to Kebeni, at that point the high-powered automatic vehicle - a Landrover Discovery 3 V8 - "suddenly lashed forward in an uncontrollable state, flattening part of the wall".

Kebeni said that a fortified ground slab of the wall had prevented Balfour's car from capsizing (sic).

The minister's vehicle was badly damaged and the front airbags were blown out.

In a statement released after the accident, Balfour said: "Viewing the accident scene and the vehicle this morning, I am lucky to be alive.

"It was a near-fatal freak accident and I was saved by the fortified slab on the ground of the perimeter wall and bull bar fitted on the vehicle front."

Balfour said that he had been shocked and traumatised by the incident.

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Pretoria News on September 04, 2006

Minister's report card

2006-09-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Minister is concerned about prison overcrowding. These conditions lead to an increase in gang activities and make rehabilitation very difficult. The Minister should have been much more active in the Cabinet Cluster in promoting diversion and alternative sentencing for petty offenders. Instead of this he resorted to a special remission of sentences, whereby all offenders irrespective of their sentences or offences got 6 months off their sentences. This trivialized the sentences of the courts and was a slap in the face of victims of crime.