Ndebele calls for accelerated service delivery

"Today marks exactly five months since I joined the Correctional Services family. We must appreciate the fact that by now, we must have a clear roadmap for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), so that we can all address some of the key corrections challenges in order to ensure a better South Africa," Ndebele said at the department's Executive Management Committee Meeting (EMS).

The EMS comprises the National Commissioner and 14 Chief Deputy Commissioners, including Regional Commissioners.

"I have no doubt that this composition of senior managers possesses the capabilities to deliver on our mandate as part of the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster.

"Our people do not have much time to listen to what our policies and strategies say about important elements of their lives. They just want delivery," he said.

Ndebele told the delegates that as they enter 2013, they must pay attention to specific issues including improved financial management, fraud and corruption, performance agreements and assessments, improved information gathering, improved relations with staff and organised labour and communication.

"As stated in the White Paper on Corrections, the ideal correctional official should embody the values that DCS hopes to instil in the offender, as it is this official who is to assist and facilitate the rehabilitation processes of the offender," he said.

Ndebele said corrections were an integral part of the Integrated Criminal Justice System, and the value chain in the fight against crime and criminality.

"We have moved away from the legacy of the past, of serving solely as an instrument of retribution, to actively pursuing lasting solutions to the societal challenge that is crime by showing those in conflict with the law that there are alternatives to a life of criminality and self-destruction. We are also embarking on Victim-Offender Dialogues," he said.

Ndebele explained that the main thrust of the programme was to contribute to a safer South Africa, through promoting family unity and stronger community systems, as well as victim support and empowerment, while pursuing the rehabilitation of those incarcerated through well-managed rehabilitation programmes.

"We must ensure that rehabilitation programmes impact the hearts, heads and hands of offenders," he said.

He said the department wanted to create opportunities where victims of crime, their families, communities, community-based organisations, NGOs, religious and spiritual bodies, educators, councillors and local leaders, will assemble together with offenders with a single purpose to rebuild communities ravaged by crime.

"It is very important that we work together as a team and yield sound, and objective, results that do not only glorify our image as the staff of the Department of Correctional Services but have a meaningful impact on the lives of our citizens, particularly offenders.

"We have a very long way to go in addressing several challenges, and it is us here who must come up with brilliant strategies and implement them," the minister said.