Department of Correctional Services on its 2011 Strategic Plan

NCOP Security and Justice

13 April 2011
Chairperson: Mr T Mofokeng (ANC; Free State)
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Meeting Summary

The National Commissioner spoke about the fresh leadership team that was aiming to take the Department of Correctional Services to a new level. They were also aiming for a clean audit and the National Commissioner spoke about their drive to fill all vacant posts, their full participation in the Justice, Crime Prevention, Security (JCPS) cluster, the importance of Information Technology for the success of the DCS and its programmes, over-crowding being a key concern that had to be confronted and solved.

The Deputy Commissioner of Operations took the Committee through the Strategic Plan and outlined the
Measurable Objectives and Performance Indicators and Targets for each of the seven programmes: Administration, Security, Corrections, Care, Development, Social Integration and Facilities.

Members interrogated the Strategic Plan and the budget of the department before agreeing on its endorsement.

Members asked questions on acting position appointments, the ratio of correctional officials to inmates, how many correctional facilities were accredited for ARV treatment, percentage of budget spent on compensation of employees, current vacancy rate, payment of municipal charges, number of consultants used by the department, whether they would under spend in 2010/11, its promotion policy, assist inmates who had gone through rehabilitation programmes with work opportunities, post release support programmes, anger management of inmates, and parole.

Meeting report

Chairpersons’ opening remarks
The Chairperson welcomed the delegation from the Department of Correctional Services as well as petitioners to Parliament, Mr Mofokeng and Mr Mokoena, who were recently released from prison after serving 19 years of their life sentence.

2011 Strategic Plan and Budget Alignment of Department of Correctional Services: Introduction
Mr Thomas S Moyane, National Commissioner, Department of Correctional Services, said it was an honour to present the plan and budget in front of their former inmates, Mofokeng and Mokoena, so they could listen to was driving the organisation going forward. Their organisation was going through a process of transformation. The Minister last year had said two critical positions needed to be filled, that of the National Commissioner and the Chief Financial Officer. He had been appointed to the position of National Commissioner and Mr Siphiwe Sokhela as Chief Financial Officer who could not make it to the meeting as he was busy with the process of auditing. He would like to tender his apology so that it was understood he was not undermining the importance and relevance of that meeting. It was because they wanted to aspire to be an organisation that had a clean audit and if conditions permitted, in the current financial year. He was proud to inform the Committee the team they saw was the team that was going to take the organisation to a different level.

For a number of years that organisation had had consecutive audit opinions which were negative and they were in the spotlight for a number of things which were not right. They believed that leadership would make all that was positive possible to achieve. They dealt with human beings who had offended society. They had the huge task of rehabilitating them and at the same time they called upon society to reintegrate them so they could become part of society that contributed to the common growth of the economy. In December last year they had stated a process of change and transformation in their organisation and they needed a leadership that was capable to be hands-on and a leadership that could be deployed any where in the Republic of South Africa to execute their mandate.

He therefore wanted to indicate that Ms
Nontsikelelo Jolingana was the Regional Commissioner for Eastern Cape and now she was the Chief Deputy Commissioner for Development and Care which was one of the pillars of the organisation. Mr Zach Modise last year was the Regional Commissioner for North West and Northern Cape and today he sits in the capacity of Chief Deputy Commissioner for Corrections which was the core business of the organisation. Ms Jennifer Schreiner still occupied the strategic position of Chief Deputy Commissioner for Operations Management Services and maintained that position. They had indicated they have a new CFO Mr Siphiwe Sokhela who was not present in the meeting. There was still one  vacant post and they had an acting person in Human Resources or Corporate Services.

They had done a bit of transformation in terms of what needed to be done in the organisation. There was one branch called “Central Services” at leadership level – which had been replaced as the Government Information Technology Office (GITO branch) with
Chief Deputy Commissioner (CDC) Jennifer Schreiner as interim head and they had Mr Jeff Moji as acting IT Chief. Transformation was an ever-changing process. This required they should have a leadership that was able to deal with challenges of the organisation. Within a month they would be appointing a Regional Commissioner for Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape and North West Province. They would be appointing a Regional Commissioner for the Province of Eastern Cape. But most importantly what was bedevilling the organisation for too long was that they were not able to recruit people. This had had an impact on the delivery of key aspects of what they hoped to achieve as a department. In terms of the call made by the President that government departments should fill all vacant posts, they would in the current financial year started 1 April fill all vacant posts. However, they would like to indicate to the Committee that the process of recruitment had already started. From June last year to the end of the financial year on 31 March 2011, they had recruited 2 000 to fill the vacant posts. They therefore believed that filling the main positions would not be a mountain too high to climb. It was key for them to provide the Committee with a high level assessment of where they were.

Secondly, service delivery within the Department of Correctional Services was a key priority. They would like to indicate to the Committee that they participated fully in the Justice, Crime Prevention, Security (JCPS) cluster with their colleagues in the police, judiciary, intelligence and other sectors to execute and implement the mandate given to them. It was important to indicate that such an organisation had certain dependencies which, if they were not in place, would render them not able to deliver the programmes they had - one which was very key was information technology. IT linked with other activities dealt with issues of security, and it dealt with the programmes that they did. But they had seen if the systems and programmes where IT had collapsed, it was be difficult for commissioners to execute their duties. Therefore they had a strong belief that in the current financial year with the expertise brought to the organisation, they would be able to live up to their expectations and deliver a functional organisation.

On the matter of recruitment, it had been important to inject new blood into the organisation and bring in people who would be able to add value within the organisation. For that reason, they had Mr Sam de Kock who was a special adviser to the National Commissioner’s office to deal with skills development and project management. Their organisation had a lot of projects and they needed to have a sense of ownership of those projects and understand at which stage each project was and when it would be completed. Therefore enterprise management would be dealt with within the organisation. When they dealt with the Strategic Plan it was important for them to look at the key drivers of the organisation so they could see what was it they needed to do. It was common knowledge and every time they appeared in a parliamentary committee, the issue of overcrowding was a thrown at them. It was an issue they were going to tackle effectively but they wanted to make it very clear that a solution would not be available in the short term. Overcrowding was a problem which affected not only DCS but the cluster itself. It should not be seen as a problem of the Department of Correctional Services only. By virtue of its importance and the location it had within their organisation, they want to indicate that overcrowding was key and their support structure would be hands-on and roll up their sleeves to deal with it. The talks and discussions that were taking place about building new prisons might well be the panacea to that problem. However, the National Commissioner and his team believed there were other solutions to the problem and the building of prisons was only one of the solutions. But most importantly linked to that it was crucial for them to be compliant with the law and be able to respond in a timely way to the challenges affecting the organisation. They should be able to provide a compliant atmosphere for safe custody of those who were in their facilities and that should be done in a humane manner. They were saying that with humility and he noted the two gentlemen who had recently been released from prison, Mr Mofokeng and Mr Mokoena, and who had joined them in the meeting. Their duty in terms of international best practice was that in respect of the crimes they might have committed in society, theirs was not to punish them but to provide space and conditions for them to live, to be rehabilitated and after their release, to be reintegrated into society. But that was a huge challenge because it meant they needed officers to execute that task to the best of their ability, and punitive measures should not be inflicted on those who were under their care.

In conclusion, the Commissioner noted that they used optimally the equipment and facilities that were at their disposal and the budget that had been voted to them to execute their tasks effectively and transparently. He believed with that short introduction the Committee had a sense that the Strategic Plan they were presenting was a dynamic document which was bound to change in terms of the situation they found themselves in. They were presenting the Strategic Plan against the backdrop of the Budget Vote the Minister had presented on 12 April. There were a number of things the Minister had said in the Budget Vote, and those would be part of key policy drivers leading them to the realisation and implementation of the Strategic Plan.

The Chairperson said they should deal both with the Strategic Plan and budget alignment, and thereafter members of the Committee would ask questions of clarity.

2011-2014 Strategic Plan of Department of Correctional Services (DCS)
Dr Joey Coetzee, Deputy Commissioner: Operations, said he would start with the first part of the Strategic Plan which dealt with the strategies of the department. In the printed version of the Strategic Plan, there were introductions by the Minister of Correctional Services, the Deputy Minister, and the National Commissioner. The National Commissioner, in his introduction, had taken important elements to share with the Select Committee. Part A of the document dealt with the strategic overview and he would like to alert members to the reference to the
DCS Logic Model that led to certain outcomes and those could be found on pages 14 and 15 of the Strategic Plan. Part B of the Strategic Plan dealt with the actual plan for each programme and the details were contained in the Powerpoint presentation. Part C referred to links with other plans.

In terms of the presentation, he would summarise aspects the National Commissioner mentioned in his opening address, that the DCS Strategic Plan was embedded in the following processes or developments over the last couple of months: the outcomes based approach of government; the service delivery agreement signed by the Minister of Correctional Services; the Logic Model developed by the department; the DCS mid-year performance review of November 2010; and resource conservation.

The Strategic Plan was supported by the Annual Performance Plan that unpacked the outputs that would ensure the delivery of the targets of the key performance indicators in their Strategic Plan. Of the 12 outcomes identified by government, the department had incorporated three of these outcomes in its Strategic Plan: Outcome 1 To improve the quality of education. Outcome 2 To ensure a long and healthy life for all South Africans, Outcome 3 That all people of South Africa were and should feel safe. The DCS had incorporated the outcomes into the Logic Model of the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan would be implemented in the department via its seven programmes which were: Administration, Security, Corrections, Care, Development, Social Integration, and Facilities.

Dr Coetzee then outlined the Measurable Objectives and Performance Indicators and Targets for each programme and their sub-programmes and linked them to the ideals of the White Paper on Corrections (see document).

He noted that the Strategic Plan was linked to other departmental plans and all their plans would be linked on their website so that the general public could have access to them. The last process would be the implementation of the Strategic Plan via the Annual Performance Plan which would be tabled in Parliament on the 9 May 2011.

Medium Term Budget of Department of Correctional Services (DCS)
Ms Nandi Mareka, DCS
Deputy Commissioner: Finance and Management Accounting, stated that the 2011/12 DCS Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE). The baseline allocation for the department was R16 billion which would grow to R19 billion by 2013/14 financial year. Additional funds that were allocated to the baseline amounted to R579.855 (for Improved condition of services, Municipal Services, Upgrade of information technology infrastructure, Generators and cleaning materials, Operational costs for three correctional facilities being upgraded, Anti-retroviral treatment for inmates). There was a devolution of funds from Public Works in an amount of R1 417 607 000.

Ms Mareka went through the allocation per programme for the next three years as well as per economic classification. Her comments on each programme were:

Programme: Administration
Spending focus on upgrading ICT infrastructure and payments for municipal charges
▪ Expenditure is projected to increase from R4.1 billion in 2010/11 to R5.1 billion in 2013/14
▪ Additional funding to upgrade IT infrastructure was provided (R60 million in 2011/12, R190 million in 2012/13 and R210 million in 2013/14)
▪ Allocations of  R148.2 million in 2011/12, R199.6 million in 2012/13 and R242.3 million have been provided for  municipal charges

Programme: Security
Spending focus over MTEF on developing an integrated security technology framework to integrate and upgrade current security technology systems in  department
▪ Over medium term, expenditure projected to increase from R5.2 billion in 2010/11 to R6.4 billion in 2013/14
▪ For improving security in correctional centres  additional funds allocation was provided for three correctional centres that are being upgraded R115 million in 2012/13 and R128 million in 2013/14 for Brandvlei, Van Rhynsdorp and Warmbokkeveld correctional centres

Programme: Corrections
Spending focus over MTEF on improving services at correctional centre level, including rehabilitating offenders in line with 2005 White Paper on Corrections in South Africa
▪ Over medium term, expenditure projected to increase from R1.5 billion in 2010/11 to R1.7 billion in 2013/14
▪ Key elements of improving rehabilitation of offenders: Implementation of new correctional sentence plans, work of case management committees and parole processes, and refinement of job descriptions of correctional officials that have been part of occupation specific dispensation process

Programme: Care
Spending focus on provision of antiretroviral treatment for inmates, health care services and treatment of inmates with mental illnesses
▪ Over medium term, expenditure projected to increase from R1.8 billion in 2010/11 to R2.1 billion in 2013/14
▪ Additional funding of R40 million in 2012/13 and R42 million in 2013/14 was made available for  anti-retroviral treatment for inmates

Programme: Development
Spending focus on increasing inmate participation in agriculture based programmes and production workshops, literacy programmes, adult basic education and training, and further education and training, with a view to improve the employability of inmates upon release
▪ Expenditure projected to increase from R559 million in 2010/11 to R617 million in 2013/14

Programme: Social Reintegration
Spending focus on reducing parole violations, improving capacity of community corrections and increasing number of victims participating in parole hearings
▪ Expenditure projected to increase from R542 million in 2010/11 to R636 million in 2013/14

Programme: Facilities
Spending focus on:
Making 3 upgraded correctional facilities operational: Brandvlei, Van Rhynsdorp and Warmbokkeveld,
Upgrading and refurbishing other correctional facilities
Procurement of four planned public private partnership correctional facilities once contract had been signed
▪ Spending expected to increase from R1.8 billion in 2010/11 to R2.3 billion in 2013/14. Increase due to upgrading of correctional facilities at Burgersdorp, Estcourt, Tzaneen, Zeerust, Nongoma and Makhado.

Comments on Economic Classifications
Spending on Compensation of Employees expected to increase from R10.2 billion in 2010/11 to R12.1 billion in 2013/14,due to salary increases and payment of pay progression of correctional officials and other Occupation Specific Dispensations
Spending on Goods and Services primarily on State Information Technology Agency, Upgrading of infrastructure technology, Payment of leases and Property payments. Expenditure expected to increase from R4.1 billion in 2010/11 to R5.3 billion in 2013/14
Payment for Capital Assets mainly on Building and Fix structures for upgrading and rehabilitation of correctional and other facilities and Upgrading of information technology. Capital budget is R906 million in 2011/12, R874 million in 2012/13 and R873 million in 2013/14.
 
Discussion
Mr M Makhubela (COPE) asked if the people that were newly appointed where in acting positions or were those positions on a full time basis. He asked when they would eradicate the problem of overcrowding in prisons. He asked which De Kock the National Commissioner was referring to when he made his introductory remarks. He asked for clarity on the DCS equity plan which was not explained clearly.

Mr J Gunda (ID, Northern Cape) thanked the department for the presentation. He asked for the ratio of correctional officials to inmates. He asked if DCS management was happy with the housing allowance for correctional services staff. He asked about the conditions of facilities in some of the prisons and how they planned to reduce overcrowding in prisons. He asked how many video cameras had been installed, how may were outstanding and what was the cause for delays. In terms of the Programme: Care he asked how many correctional facilities were accredited for ARV treatment. He asked if it was true that 78% of the budget in Programme: Development went to the compensation of employees. He asked for the current vacancy rate in the department.

Mr M Mokgobi (ANC, Limpopo) asked if the department was paying for its municipal charges because most departments where not paying municipal charges.

Mr M Zulu (IFP, KZN) asked why the department was always appointing staff in acting positions and when they would employ people on a full-time basis.

Mr G Matila (ANC, Gauteng) said he welcomed the presentation but he asked for clarity on how they dealt with the vacancy rate and which positions were vacant, and how soon they would fill them. He asked how the department had achieved within specific programmes for the previous year as this was not reflected in the presentation. He asked the department to reflect on the number of consultants used by the department and on line items that were under-spent.

Mr Gunda asked if the department had a promotion policy and, if they did, when would it be operational and how would it work. He asked if the correctional officers were suitable for their jobs and what was the plan to get rid of old management officials that were not suitable. He asked the department to explain what it meant when it said it was going to assist inmates who had gone through their rehabilitation programmes with work opportunities. He asked the department if how they intended to improve their system of parole.

Mr Makgobi asked about the post release support programme. What was their link with the parolees outside prison. He asked how they dealt with the anger of inmates.

Mr Matila asked about the target of the Parole Board and how they would achieve their targets.

The National Commissioner stated that they welcomed all the questions raised by members and some of the questions gave them opportunity for introspection. On acting positions, he had indicated they had acting regional commissioners for Gauteng, Free State, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape but they would be filling those positions during May 2011.

On overcrowding, they could not give the Committee an exact date when overcrowding would be eradicated because it was a long term process and did not entirely depend on the DCS alone but it was a cluster issue or problem. The police would always arrest criminals so they could not dictate to them how many they should arrest. If the matter was turnaround, there were two factors, one was societal (as to how communities responded to issues of responsibility and were children able to receive proper education) and the other was  socio-economic, which always determined the level of crime. If people were not employed especially in a situation like South Africa and the people arrested were young men and women who could not get jobs, one therefore reverted to crime which put them in confrontation with the law. Therefore, overcrowding was a problem which needed to be tackled by all spheres of government. There were programmes that could reduce the problem of overcrowding. If they did an analysis of overcrowding, DCS was sitting with 157 000 inmates in their facilities and a third of these were awaiting trial detainees. The judiciary was slow in processing cases and the cases kept on being remanded - this was not the fault of correctional services. Therefore if they were to take awaiting trial detainees out of the equation, they would be sitting with an insignificant amount of overcrowding. But they wanted to believe that the Amendment Bill before Parliament would help them. The Bill stated very clearly that the police had a certain period for doing investigation and if the case had not been completed within a certain period, that person should be released. They were dealing with a problem that at face value would appear that the department was the culprit. At the same time the community would be very angry if those people were left roaming within society. They therefore were saying that it was a cluster and societal issue. At the same time they were doing everything in their power to solve the problem but it would be remiss of them to tell the Committee that in the next two to three years they would have dealt with the problem. As the economy improved and people found jobs, they would have fewer criminal cases which were linked to poverty in the society.

The question on filling of posts related to the President’s call that all funded positions should be filled. They were saying as the department, starting from the current month of April until March next year all funded positions would be filled. In the first quarter they believed that they would fill 50% of those posts. However,  they would have no excuse by the end of the current financial year to fill the posts including junior level positions.

Offender labour was a principle they regarded highly and they did not want their prisons to be 5 star hotels. They needed to emphasise that not all offenders would be eligible to work. For those serving maximum sentences, there was no way they would allow them to work outside but they may work at their workshops were they could be monitored. He noted that not all facilities had workshops. Therefore not all inmates would be eligible to work or do offender labour. The type of workshops that they have were agriculture, furniture, steel work, burglar bars, keys for prison, and a number of projects. Work and labour helped inmates with skills development and the issue of offender labour was upheld by the department.

In terms of consultants, the Minister and his team had noted this and they were dealing with the issue of consultants decisively. They needed to indicate that there would be no department without a portion of consultants amongst them but in their situation they had an abnormal number of consultants. They were dealing with that and certainly it was an issue. They did not want to dwell on it in detail suffice to say the next time they came to the Committee, they would be able to reflect on the exact numbers of consultants. The consultants that they had were mainly involved with IT.

Mr Gunda interrupted the Commissioner and asked him for the exact number of consultants without his going into detail about their activities.

The National Commissioner responded that if his figures were correct, currently in IT they had 97 consultants. It should be noted IT was a skill they needed but as to whether the IT consultants added value, was a different issue.

About escapes, the Commissioner stated that they would like to have zero tolerance so that the people of South Africa could have peace of mind but they did have lapses against standard operation procedures. If that happened, punitive measures were taken. They were doing bench making because there was no prison in the world that did not have escapees. They had to follow best practice in the world to decrease the number of escapes.

Ms
Nontsikelelo Jolingana, DCS Chief Director: Corrections, Development and Care, said they had engaged with the Department of Education to assist them with the registration of schools so as to make sure the programmes they provided at the correctional centres were the same as those provided outside. They had manage to register six full time schools and those were accommodated at temporary buildings because their centres were not designed for schooling and they have to do the best with what they had. In terms of teaching personnel they employed teachers but they were not enough and it depended on capacity at provincial level. There were instances where the Department of Education provided DCS with teachers.

About anger management, they have an anger management programme which offenders engage in depending on whether that was identified as a need in the sentence plan. This was provided so they could deal with the source of the anger. They involved them in activities to divert the anger such as sport and arts.

In terms of ARV sites and treatment, she said they had 21 ARV sites which had been accredited nationally and elsewhere offenders were referred to the Department of Health facilities for treatment. They had a relationship with the Department of Health which ensured whoever was on ARVs did not interrupt their treatment.

Mr Zach Modise Chief Director: Corrections, said the National Commissioner had signed a Service Level Agreement with the Department of Public Works and they were complying with that. In relation to post release programmes, the department was committed to having halfway houses in the current financial year which they would be piloting. However, they did have programmes for their probationers and parolees and there were 10 programmes in total. Halfway houses would deal with those offenders that find it difficult to cope outside. On the question of municipal service charges, they had indicated DCS had previously no budget for that but because of the responsibility given to the department, they would be paying the municipal charges themselves. The Department of Public Works was currently doing that on their behalf. There were 41 000 officials in the department versus 160 000 offenders and so the ratio was 1 to 4. However, that was not a true reflection of the ratio because some of their staff members were not directly involved with prisoners, they were doing administration work and some of them were in community offices.

Mr Gunda interjected and agreed with Mr Modise that some of the staff were doing administration work and in his visit to some of the prisons he noticed there were 5 to 8 officials looking after 100 offenders and some of the offenders were maximum security offenders. He therefore thought the National Commissioner had not answered clearly on whether they were satisfied with the current budget. He asked if the Department was satisfied and happy with the budget.

The Commissioner responded that they were responding to the questions with their best intentions at heart and they were not hiding anything from the Committee. Staffing was at the core of priorities for the department and all funded posts should be filled. They could not have facilities that were understaffed especially in the situation Mr Gunda was describing. The department was doing everything in its power not to end up with a ratio that was unacceptable. Therefore if they dealt with such things honestly and openly, the question would be answered frankly. He thought they should not focus too much at managerial level but they should look at the lower level of staff. This was where they needed to employ more correctional officials so they would be able to have a true ratio in their prisons, and reduce the number of escapes, assaults and the working hours of their officials.

Ms Mareka responded on the amount of the budget for the compensation of employees for 2011/12. The amount was R10.9bn out of a total of R16bn which translated to 66% in total. With regard to the Programme: Corrections, the 98% in the parliament research report should actually be 97%. The Programme: Development in the research report mentioned 78% but it was actually 61%. Thus the compensation of workers for the Programme: Development was R343m of the R569m allocated to it.

With regard to the 2011 ARV allocation in the provinces, initially they tapped into the provincial departments of health for ARVs. The directive from National Health from two years ago was that all provincial departments had to build correctional health services which provided ARV programme for inmates. They had approached National Treasury and provinces believed they could implement that directive. Western Cape was the first to start and others followed and the relationship that was there continued. Therefore there was allocation for the ARV programme in the baseline budget. With regard to the question on whether the previous year’s allocated financial resources would be fully utilised, she said the auditing process was still underway and the year had just started and the previous year’s had not closed yet, but in terms of preliminary figures they expected to currently underspend by 5%.

Mr Matila suggested they endorse the Committee Report on the DCS Budget on condition that they receive quarterly reports from the department so they could monitor the implementation of the programmes that were nicely articulated by the department. Mr Mokgobi seconded the endorsement.

Mr Gunda supported the proposal and added the department should come back and report to the Committee on some of the questions they had avoided.

The Chairperson thanked the Commissioner and his team for a good presentation. He said he expected the department to come again and report to the Committee as members had requested so that the Committee would be able to fully exercise its oversight role.

The meeting was adjourned.

MEDIA STATEMENT

08 December 2010

COMMISSIONER MOYANE ANNOUNCES RESHUFFLES IN HIS EXECUTIVE
MANAGEMENT TEAM TO STRENGTHEN SERVICE DELIVERY CAPACITY

Correctional Services National Commissioner Tom Moyane says delivery of correctional
services requires a revolution in order to make right a number of challenges facing the
institution and deepen the transformation started with the approval of the White Paper
on Corrections.

Addressing the executive management and staff of Correctional Services in Pretoria
today Commissioner Moyane said the changes are meant to strengthen the capacity of
Correctional Services to address a number of challenges that include inconsistency in
Case Management cycles and in the operations of Parole Boards, implementing the
new Remand Detention system, as well as strengthening of performance management
and reviews.

Correctional Services National Commissioner Tom Moyane announced changes to his
executive management as part of strengthening service delivery capacity which include:

1. The establishment of a fully fledged branch for Information Technology to replace
the Central Services Branch and assigned Chief Deputy Commissioner (CDC)
Jennifer Schreiner as interim head of the GITO Branch,
2. The appointment of Ms. Subashini Moodley – the Chief Deputy Commissioner for
Development and Care as the General Secretary of the Africa Correctional
Services Association (ACSA),
3. The appointment of Ms Nontsikelelo Jolingana – the Regional Commissioner of
Eastern Cape - to fill the vacancy left by Ms Moodley in Development and Care,
4. The appointment of Mr. Zach Modise - Regional Commissioner of Free
State/Northern Cape to the vacant position of CDC Corrections,
5. The vacant senior executive management position that includes Regional
Commissioners for Eastern Cape, Free State/Northern Cape, Gauteng and
Limpopo/North West/Mpumalanga Regions will be advertised in due course.
Commissioner Moyane announced Ms Grace Molatedi and Mr. Nkosinathi
Breakfast as Acting Regional Commissioners for Free State/Northern Cape and
Eastern Cape respectively.

6. As Regional Commissioners of Gauteng and LMN are no longer with the
Department Commissioner Moyane appointed Mr. Kenny Bouwer and Ms. Lunga
Tseana as Acting Regional Commissioners of Gauteng and LMN region
respectively.

Commissioner Moyane read a riot act to a few officials responsible for perpetuating
fraud and corruption including the “despicable practice of nepotism, aiding escapes and
those failing to ensure a clean audit report”. He said: “we are extremely determined to
rid this organisation of cancerous financial mismanagement, including tender
manipulations and stealing of public funds through (among others) illegal transfers from
PERSAL.” He acknowledged the contributions of correctional officials and managers
who have contributed in implementing the White Paper on Corrections particularly coal
face officials that on a daily basis face many challenges.

Further unveiling his vision for the Department of Correctional Services after serving
about seven months at the helm, Commissioner Moyane promised to unveil a “security
blue print for the Department of Correctional Services in due course” in collaboration
with partners in the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster of Departments. He
said the security blue print will “capacitate our organisation to deal with current and
future security risks associated with our organisation”. This is a task that is of top
priority in my tenure as National Commissioner and I can assure all of us that it will not
be business as usual.” He called for “adherence to highest standards of discipline,
without which it is impossible for us to succeed in any of our administrative and
operational imperatives.”

He made a number of critical announcements on the improvement of working
conditions for correctional officials that include:

The establishment of a New Academy to provide accredited training for
correctional officials and managers;

Strengthening of the Emergency Support Team (EST), a crack security team of
Correctional Services responsible for all security interventions required;
The re-introduction of National Corrections Excellence Awards that will be held
in March 2011 to celebrate many pockets of excellence within the Department of
Correctional Services; and

The filling of all critical vacancies to enable Correctional Services to operate at
optimum capacity.

He reminded all officials that the performance standard for security during Operation
Vala, the festive season security plan, is zero escapes. He urged all officials not to treat
operation Vala as an event, but part of an ongoing security improvement plan to ensure
that all South Africans are and feel safe.

All the changes announced by the National Commissioner take effect immediately.
Among staff members attending the meeting were all Regional Commissioners, Chief
Deputy Commissioners, Head Office personnel and managers of the Gauteng Region.
Commissioner Moyane wished all managers and officials a happy Christmas and a
prosperous New Year.

Present

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