Pretoria - Correctional Services Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla on Thursday called on communities to support offenders during the process of being reintegrated into their communities.
“It takes a village to raise a child. It equally takes a community to offer a second chance to an offender through contributing towards their successful reintegration into society,” he said.
The Deputy Minister was speaking at the launch of South Africa’s first Ex-Offenders’ Desk in Patensie in the Eastern Cape.
The launch is in line with the resolution of the Ex-Offenders’ Conference held on 23 and 24 July 2015 in Pretoria. It looked at the role that ex-offenders can play within communities to curb criminality and to ease the process of social reintegration of parolees and probationers into societies.
The Ex-Offenders’ Desk will create, manage and monitor programmes that will help communities to prevent crime.
Through the desk, Correctional Services will encourage and empower ex-offenders to be involved in community forums, poverty alleviation programmes, crime prevention and substance abuse programmes, with a specific focus on the youth.
Addressing an audience of over 150 community members, parolees, probationers and officials from different government departments, Deputy Minister Makwetla challenged parolees and probationers to avoid reoffending because by so doing, they are undermining the trust that communities have in the South African penal system.
He said the onus was on ex-offenders to give credibility to the parole system by not reoffending and becoming agents of change, who can transform from criminality to law-abiding citizens.
Thursday’s launch in Patensie will be followed by a similar launch in Jeffrey’s Bay on Friday. These areas, which collectively have a population of 32 370, are relatively small, and form part of the Kouga Municipality and Sara Baartman District Municipality.
Kouga Municipality is generally poverty-stricken, where employment is seasonal. In Patensie, the community relies predominantly on the seasonal citrus, vegetable, chicory, tobacco farming and fishing for employment.
Substance abuse is a major threat, thus necessitating anti-substance abuse programmes.
The Ex-Offenders’ Desk will help to facilitate these programmes, while offering other services such as educational programmes, life skills as well as services provided by the Department of Social Development, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Home Affairs, Department of Health and various NGOs.
Deputy Minister Makwetla also thanked Mrs Moss for closing the doors of her tavern and donating the premises to the community of Patensie and the Department of Correctional Services, to house the Offenders’ Desk.
The newly renovated building was transformed by a group of parolees and probationers under the supervision of the Humansdorp Community Corrections office. - SAnews.gov.za
