The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, Ms Kgomotso Ramolobeng, has wished the National Library and the Department of Correctional Services a successful Funda Mzantsi Competition for the year 2025.
Ms Ramolobeng said the competition is happening as the committee had prioritized the Eastern Cape province for its oversight visits that will start tomorrow, 6 Monday. She said:
“This is a long running program in conjunction with the National Library and has contributed immensely to the lives of the incarcerated. This week offers a nice context for the surprise oversight visit that the committee is conducting in the provinces of the Eastern Cape and Western Cape.”
“We will not tire in ensuring that inmates are treated with dignity. This is an obligation we have in the context of our Ubuntu principles, and the constitutional dispensation whose fundamentals are corrective approach to offenders,” emphasised Ms Ramolobeng.
She said the committee is fully aware that the society has different opinions on how to handle prisoners but the truth is that the society still has an obligation to ensure that the welfare on these people is guaranteed and that even in chains they are treated with dignity.
The committee will from tomorrow undertake a week-long visit to the Eastern and Western Cape, to assess among others:
• Skills Programmes provided to offenders,
• Conditions of detention for both remand and sentenced inmates,
• Treatment offenders who are Mothers, and,
• Overall Infrastructure of correctional centres
The committee will conduct physical walkabouts of the correction facilities.
Ms Ramolobeng said the intention was not so much to catch out officials but to ensure dignity for the most disadvantaged of our society.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.