Committee Report of Department of Correctional Services & Judicial Inspectorate Annual Report 2009/10

Meeting report

Adoption of Committee Minutes
The Committee’s Minutes of 13 October were approved and adopted.

The Committee Minutes of 17 November were tabled and minor corrections were made to the grammar and use of language, before the Minutes were adopted.

Minor corrections to the grammar, spelling and use of language were also made to the Committee Minutes of 28 January 2010, before their adoption by the Committee.

The Committee Minutes of 11 November 2009 were tabled.

Mr J Selfe (DA), in relation to these minutes, raised the issue of the suspension of the National Commissioner. He noted that the National Commissioner had expressed her dissatisfaction that she was not informed that her post was being advertised.  He stated that the National Commissioner was being charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act, a contravention of the Code of Conduct of the Public Service in relation to procurement of private rented accommodation for herself and the regional Commissioner at Houghton Estate, as well as for a contravention of the Department’s International Travel Guideline relating to a trip where the Commissioner was accompanied by her husband.

Mr Selfe referred to the media report stating that the Commissioner was acquitted of all the charges, but had not been re-instated to her position. Instead, the Commissioner was put on special leave while preparing for the disciplinary inquiry and was considering her options. Mr Selfe stated that he had a problem about a person having been acquitted on charges but the suspension not having been lifted. He thought that natural justice would surely require that if a person was acquitted, then she should be reinstated.

Mr Selfe then said that the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services had always struggled as it had not been involved in matters relating to the replacement and suspension of National Commissioners.  He then proposed that the Minister be invited to explain the circumstances surrounding the National Commissioner’s suspension and also to answer as to what the progress was in finding a new Commissioner.

Mr Selfe informed the Committee that the State had paid Ms Sibeko a sum of R805 000, including a service bonus, while she was on suspension. He thought that the matter required the Committee’s deep interrogation and hoped that the Committee would find time in its programme for a full interrogation of all issues soon.

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC) agreed with Mr Selfe’s proposal for serious investigation into the matters. She reminded the Committee that one of the reasons the Committee was not too involved with the appointment of the Commissioner was that the national elections in 2009 the Committee not to pursue the matter further. She added that the Department of Correctional Services should be invited to the Committee, rather than the Minister as Mr Selfe had proposed.

The Chairperson ordered a letter of invitation to be drafted and sent to the Minister, who was responsible for the hiring and firing of personnel.  He then asked the Committee how they would see the Department’s involvement in the matter.

Ms B Blaai (COPE) replied that the Department should present the Committee with a broad explanation. She stated that the Department of Correctional Services was not working effectively because of the lack of a stable commissioner, and in fact was hampered further by the large numbers of Acting Commissioners being appointed in quick succession. She asked how long the Commissioners’ contracts ran. The suspended National Commissioner’s contract had expired in 2008, but was extended without much explanation. She concluded by asserting that the bulk of the confusion lay with the Department rather than with the Minister.

The Chairperson proposed that the Minister join the meeting scheduled for 24 February with the Department. The aim of this meeting was to discuss the strategic plan and the budget, but he thought it wise to include the Minister in order to avoid time wastage.

Members agreed that the Minister should join in that meeting, to shed light on the issue of the National Commissioner.

Investigations into prosecution on matters identified by the Special Investigations Unit
Mr A Fritz (DA) enquired as to the current situation on the investigation conducted into the report submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). He stated that the Committee needed to follow up on investigations, as there were many people who had been investigated without any conclusions being reached.

Mr S Abram (ANC) added that it would suffice if the Committee was told that certain individuals had been charged.  He added the Committee needed to be informed of individuals being apprehended, and kept informed of the status of the pending cases.  He concluded by proposing that a letter be drafted and sent to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in an effort to gather the information.

Mr Selfe thought that perhaps it was not up to the SIU as its Head, Mr Willie Hofmeyr, had passed on the matters for prosecution to the SAPS and  NPA. The NPA should be asked whether it had finalised its examination of the dockets, and whether it had taken a decision to prosecute, in which case it should be asked to advise when this would happen.

It was agreed by the Committee that a letter would be written to the NPA along the lines suggested.

Ms Ngwenya alerted the Committee to the fact that the contract of the SIU had ended and sought clarity whether the contract had been renewed or not.

The Chairperson stated that the question of the expiry of the SIU’s contract would be raised at the Strategic Plan meeting with the Department. 

Committee’s Draft Report on the Annual Reports of the Department of Correctional Services and Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services
Mr Selfe commended the Committee Secretary on compiling a good and valuable report. He was concerned that reports of this nature tended to be submitted to ministers at the National Assembly, but thereafter “disappeared”. He was loath to see the valuable information in such reports being discarded without following up of the matters reported upon. He proposed that the Committee’s report should be sent to the Department of Correctional Services, so that it could give responses to the Committee on matters raised in the report, to avoid the same issues reappearing year after year without being addressed.

Mr Abram agreed with Mr Selfe in principle, but suggested that rather than the Department responding orally, the Committee should request a written response on issues raised in the report.  He stated that this method would serve as a referral system that could later be used to check the correlation between the Annual Reports, what was stated by the Department to the Committee and what had been done.

The Chairperson agreed with the suggestions made by Mr Selfe and Mr Abram and requested that a letter be written to the Department requesting a written response after the Committee’s report was submitted to the Department.

Mr D Olifant (ANC) also suggested that the Committee should adopt a firm stance and raise the suggestions during the meeting with the Department on 24 February.

The draft Committee Report was adopted.

Other issues:
Stakeholders
Mr Olifant asked for the Committee’s guidance and clarification on the issue of stakeholders.

Ms M Phaliso (ANC) said she thought that the community at large was starting now to understand the issues around correctional services, and was aware that if matters were not being dealt with by the Department, then the grievances should be brought to the Portfolio Committee. She asked the Committee to anticipate and consider that. 

Escapes
Ms Ngwenya raised the issue of escapes from correctional service facilities, and referred to a recent case reported by the media, occurring on 22 February 2010. It seemed that there might be correctional service staff involvement, as it was almost impossible for the detainees to escape entirely unaided, due to security systems in maximum security prisons.  She also raised the issue that no staff had been implicated and the investigations had not been concluded.  She proposed that the Department should be called to explain how this escape had occurred. Ms Ngwenya also noted that in regard to the escape of Ananias Mathee, considered by the Committee in 2006, the Committee was never given a full report stating how the investigation was conducted.

Mr Selfe agreed with Ms Ngwenya that the Department should explain the matter to the Committee. However, he proposed that the Committee should visit the location in question as the reports in the media were confused.  He stated that the Committee’s site visit would show that the Committee was serious about escapes. 

Mr Selfe added that he had received reports in recent weeks that most maximum security facilities were immensely short staffed and that the staff were terrified because they were grossly outnumbered. He reminded the Committee of an incident some years back when, on Christmas Day, Pollsmoor Correctional Centre was manned by only two warders.

Mr Fritz raised the issue of infrastructure.  He said that in most maximum security facilities gates were not in working condition. He also added that the absentee rate amongst the staff during weekends had increased tremendously.

Ms Phaliso proposed that the Department should report to the Committee also on the issue of vacancies.

The Committee agreed to pay a visit to the maximum security facility at which the most recent escape had occurred, before any evidence became distorted.

The meeting was adjourned.