Pretoria - Correctional Services National Commissioner Tom Moyane has called on all correctional centres to spare no effort in ensuring that challenges affecting the centres are being addressed.
"South Africans are investing over R15 billion each year for correctional services to effectively contribute in ensuring that South Africans feel safe, they deserve better than we have delivered thus far," said Commissioner Moyane.
Among the challenges affecting the centres are overcrowding, low victim participation in the parole system and low levels of offender access to rehabilitation programmes.
Addressing about 100 correctional managers from across the Gauteng region at the Zonderwater Correctional Centre on Monday, Commissioner Moyane challenged other correctional centres to emulate the good example set by Zonderwater Correctional Centre in terms of cleanliness and productivity that stands 'head and shoulders' above many facilities in South Africa.
Each year, the Zonderwater Correctional Centre produces 307 tons of vegetables, yoghurt, red meat, milk, poultry and slaughters about 1 000 chickens per day to supply a number of correctional centres in the Gauteng region.
The centre also boasts a number of artworks including extensive production of furniture and steel utensils to supply a number of government departments.
Commissioner Moyane has also undertaken to negotiate with the National Treasury to enable the sale of large stocks of artwork produced by offenders as part of their rehabilitation and correction of the offending behaviour.
He stressed a need to organise a dedicated week to showcase the offenders' artworks and selling them to the general public during this year.
"Highly productive centres like Zonderwater should be encouraged as revenue generation centres of correctional services that contribute in ensuring self sufficiency," Commissioner Moyane said.
During his visit, Moyane also got an opportunity to visit a chicken farm including a poultry abattoir, yoghurt factory and 2 400 hectare of vegetable fields in the correctional centre farm.
Going through wood and steel factories, Commissioner Moyane also committed to ensure that some aging production equipment used at the facility are being replaced with more modern equipment to improve productivity.
He congratulated the department as well as Safety and Security SETA for bringing into the factories tens of ordinary law abiding young men and women from the surrounding community, who are trained to gained critical life and production skills alongside offenders at the factories.
He further called for entrenchment of key values of integrity, commitment to excellence and accountability as pillars that would gear the department to perform better than it has done in many respects.
The department achieved a 92 percent reduction in escapes during the festive season under the programme called Operation Vala.
Commissioner Moya attributed the department's excellent performance in fighting fraud and corruption in government to correctional managers that have demonstrated character sometimes under very trying working conditions.
