Comment: A perspective on the future of prisons in the new South Africa

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Pages: 223-228
• Date: 24 May 2019
• Citation: (1999) 12 SACJ 223
• Author: Willem Luyt
• Published date: 24 May 2019

Comments • Aantekeninge

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223

A perspective on the future of

prisons in the new South Africa

WILLEM LUYT

Senior Lecturer at Technikon SA, South Africa

South Africa, once a pariah of the world because of its unacceptable political

system, has become the showcase of the world due to the radical

political changes which took place in the first half of this decade and the

smooth transition into one of the newest democracies in the world. Under

the leadership of the renowned President Nelson Mandela, South Africa has

received a great deal of international support in its development into one of

the most significant role-players on the African continent.

However, the new South Africa reflects different degrees of freedom (see

D v Z Smit, 'Degrees of freedom' (1994) 13

Criminal Justice Ethics

31). On

the one hand the majority of South Africans became liberated in terms of

obtaining the basic right to vote for a democratic government, while on the

other hand the country is struggling to get significant economic growth and

investment to address the poor socio-economic conditions which have

prevailed for so long in disadvantaged communities. All in all, South Africa

has become a country of opportunities for everyone, unfortunately including

a large number of people with criminal intentions.

Apart from the growing crime rate, where, according to police statistics,

five murders or attempted murders take place every hour and nearly three

people are raped every hour

(Beeld,

May 1998:1), the South African

Department of Correctional Services has inherited a prison system where an

apartheid regime with narrow thinking patterns ruled for nearly half a

century. The heritage of the present prison regime was none other than an

overcrowded monster which the staff was unable to control. Riots in South

African prisons were at their worst only days before the first democratic

elections in 1994. Very little effort was made to improve the prisoners' skills

to a degree where they could look forward to a useful new life after being

released from prison. Prisons had become universities for crime, where

gangsters were the professors.

South Africa has experienced many changes within the prison environ

ment over the last two years. In an attempt to transform the Department of

Correctional Services, six hundred and fifty-three voluntary severance

packages, mostly for people who could not identify with the new

government system, were approved during 1997, including 33 people from

(1999) 12 SACJ 223

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