Correctional services excellence awards
More than 6 000 officials from the country’s 243 correctional centres submitted entries for the awards and only 68 made it to the finals
Correctional services minister, Mr Sibusiso Ndebele, has reminded correctional officials that they cannot fail in their duties as they are society’s last bastion of hope.
This he said in his keynote address during the sixth annual National Corrections Excellence Awards held in Kimberley on March 7, where the country’s top correctional officials for 2012/13 were announced.
“Correctional officials must step in where the church, mosque, temple, school, psychologists, psychiatrists, trade unionists and everyone else in society have failed. To this end, we reiterate that anarchy and corruption, will not be tolerated in our correctional centres. Correctional officials who are partners in crime with inmates have no place in this department. This kind of behaviour makes a mockery of rehabilitation,” said Ndebele.
The awards recognized officials who had gone beyond the call of duty in contributing towards safety, fighting fraud and corruption, promoting partnerships, advancing community participation and advancing education in rehabilitation.
More than 6 000 officials from the country’s 243 correctional centres submitted entries for the awards and only 68 made it to the finals.
“The entries were adjudicated from correctional centre level to area-, provincial- and national level by an independent adjudication committee and 68 finalists were selected in the various individual and team categories,” stated a media release.
Among the top achievers Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West regions made it to the best community corrections office category, the deputy minister’s team award and correctional supervision and parole board.
Ndebele added that officials were agents of change and had a pivotal role to play in social cohesion and nation building, “In order to achieve incredible feat of healing and building South Africa, we must all truly desire to see it happen as our forebearers did,” he said.
“We are descendants of champions, and the DNA of winners runs in our bloodline. We cannot afford moderation, because it leads to mediocrity. We need intensity, which leads to excellence. To hate excellence, argues Mary Renault, is to hate the gods. Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Helen Joseph, Abdullar Abduraman, Lillian Ngoyi, Fatima Meer, Miriam Makeba – these are our ancestors who carrried the DNA of excellent service to humanity and our country. In order not to fail them in the task of reconstructing our country, we need to do ordinary things extraordinarily well,” he said.
