Cape Town — Minister of Correctional Services, Pieter Groenewald, said South Africans are living in a broken country and the criminal justice system needs to be looked into in order to grow the economy.
Groenewald, the leader of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) Party who joined the Government of National Unity (GNU) was appointed as the Minister of Correctional Services by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Despite his party’s inclusion in the GNU, Groenewald has not held back on his assessment of the state of the country during the debate of Ramaphosa’s Opening of Parliament Address (OPA) on Friday.
He said South Africans should decide whether or not they agree with the priorities Ramaphosa mentioned during the Address, which focused predominantly on fixing municipalities to grow the economy and the creation of employment, EWN reported.
“We must ensure that we get the best people to do the job. We must be honest with each other. At the moment, we have officials, whether they are cadre deployment, but they are not qualified to do their job, then we have qualified people., but they don’t do their job.”
He said the GNU presents an opportunity to restore the country, which is in line with his party’s election slogan and said the current extent of crime in the country means citizens do not feel safe in the streets.
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“But we must also be honest. We can’t only have policies on paper. We as government – and note, I say we – have the responsibility to ensure it’s implemented.”
Groenewald expressed his disappointment over the video of the prison inmate, Bornface Banks, who bragged about living a comfortable life in prison. The Goodwood Correctional Services, where Banks was locked up, was raided by correctional services and contraband including cellphones and weapons, were confiscated.
According to TimesLIVE, Groenewald said he wanted to investigate to work out how Banks got access to a cellphone.
“I want to know how it happened that the prisoner could have had a cellphone with him. It’s not a minor issue; it’s an important issue because it’s unacceptable. It’s a contravention of the Correctional Services Act,” he said in an interview.
He believes correctional services staff were involved, which means security and corruption are involved. He said the wardens turn a blind eye to some of the illegal activities happening at the facilities.
“I will look into this as a priority to ensure there are no more blind eyes in prison. We will have to deal with this matter. If we don’t solve it now, it will escalate. We have zero tolerance for corruption,” he said,
Groenewald said Banks was charged with illegal possession of a cell phone.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
