Offenders currently incarcerated across Gauteng had reason to celebrate on 29 September when 150 of them graduated with tertiary qualifications at a ceremony on 29 September.
The 15th annual Regional Offender Graduation Ceremony was held at Leeuwkop Correctional Centre, in one of its mess halls, and saw a number of offenders from various prisons awarded with an artisan or computer literacy certificate, diploma, degree or post-graduate qualification. This was made possible through the Department of Gauteng Correctional Facilities’ Education and Training Programme.
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“We are very committed to transforming the lives of offenders,” explained Sanku Tsunke, manager of communications for the Department of Corrections.
“Offenders are not going to stay here at the prison forever and we want to empower them for the future,” said Tsunke.
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“The offenders are very excited about the ceremony and they’re also very proud, which they should be.”
Of the 150 offenders who graduated, 44 received certificates in artisan skills such as motor mechanics or upholstery, 78 received certificates for newly acquired skills such as computer literacy or management, 15 received diplomas in subjects such as mechanical engineering or human resources management, 11 received degrees in subjects such as business and law and a single offender received his honours degree in education.
The offenders were awarded these qualifications from the studies they had completed during the time they were incarcerated, mostly through distance learning courses, according to Tsunke.
The ceremony followed the same pattern as in similar ceremonies at tertiary institutions across the country, although security was visibly present throughout the three-hour ceremony. An academic procession was conducted at the start of the ceremony and friends and family of offenders filled up the hall in order to watch their loved ones graduate.
Professor Mpine Makoe, head of Unisa’s Institute for Open Distance Learning gave a key address before the graduates were capped.
“Although you achieved this through open distance learning, I still think of you as my own students,” Makoe said to the gathered offenders. “What you have done today is just amazing.”
