Key law on prisons watchdog still stuck in the pipeline nine months later

A key draft statute that would make the prisons watchdog fully independent of the Department of Correctional Services has been stuck in the legislative process for nine months.

Meanwhile, the Correctional Services Amendment Act, which partially secures the watchdog’s independence, has been signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa, but the amendments will come into operation only on a date determined by the president, which he has not yet done.

The amended act vests the administrative, financial and clerical functions of the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services in its own chief executive officer (rather than the national commissioner of prisons) provides for the appointment of the CEO by the minister rather than by the national commissioner, and provides that the inspectorate’s budget is granted directly by Parliament rather than by the department from its own budget.

In addition, within the structures of the civil service, the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services was formally declared an autonomous national government component. But, despite its requests, the inspectorate has not yet been added to the official list of national government components.

The resulting situation is “vexing for all concerned”, said inspectorate acting spokesperson Lennard de Souza.

Speaking to GroundUp on the sidelines of a sitting of Parliament’s Correctional Services Portfolio Committee last week, De Souza said the inspectorate had been told that the Correctional Services minister was seeking agreement from the minister of finance and the Department of Public Services and Administration to formally list it as an “autonomous national government component”.

He said the delays were out of the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services’s control, but affected its functioning.

De Souza said that when the pending draft statute was enacted, among other things:

• The Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services would be able to recommend disciplinary action against errant Department of Correctional Services officials. And the national commissioner would be bound to provide reasons for not implementing the inspectorate’s recommendations.


• The Department of Correctional Services would have to respond within 30 business days to all the inspectorate’s findings.


• Anyone who interfered with the inspecting judge or an official of the inspectorate in the exercise of their powers would be committing an offence, which would carry a fine or imprisonment for a period of up to two years.


• The Department of Correctional Services would be obliged to report to the inspectorate not only, as at present, deaths of inmates and assaults and the use of force, but also torture or degrading treatment, hunger strikes, escapes, and corruption.


• The inspecting judge would be able to investigate or tell the national commissioner to investigate allegations of any human rights abuses, with or without notice.

DM