2024 report card: Pieter Groenewald’s highs and lows this year

Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald has got a lot of tongues wagging this year, but was he any good at his job and what does the future likely hold for him? We take a look.

When the African National Congress (ANC) invited parties to join the government of national unity (GNU) following their disappointing national and provincial elections in May, the door was opened for power to be shared.

It took a few weeks for President Cyril Ramaphosa to decide on and appoint his third cabinet, which now features ministers and deputy ministers from the 10 other parties in the GNU. These ministers were announced on 30 June and sworn in on 3 July.

Many leaders of political parties that joined the GNU were given the roles of whose incumbents they had previously berated for apparently not doing their job. Outspoken rivals became authority figures and it became their task to carry South Africa forward.

Groenewald addresses escapes, corrupt wardens

Leader of the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) since 2016, Pieter Groenewald was chosen to be the new minister of the Department of Correctional Services.

This came at a difficult time for the department as public opinion on prisons, and especially the perceived lax attitude, or corruption of wardens took a few knocks in 2024.

The country awaits the trial of infamous ‘Facebook rapist’ Thabo Bester, who escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in 2022.

The Public Protector launched an investigation in March 2023 after receiving a complaint from a member of the public that the Department of Correctional Services had failed the public in its handling of the escape.

Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka found that there was “undue delay” in the way the DCS handled Bester’s prison escape.

Several officials were fired and charged. But Gcaleka included a number of remedial actions in her report and the department was urged to implement these.

Groenewald visited the facility in October, conducting “a comprehensive physical inspection”. He and other officials identified areas where greater security measures were needed.

On the back of this, a video emerged of an inmate claiming that life in prison is comfortable. He said inmates have access to free food, electricity, and education, as well as the ability to use a cellphone.

This was in July, just weeks after Groenewald’s instatement.

Life in prison is ‘comfortable’, inmate says

Soft life in SA prison??🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/8fQpB7tK0S

— MDN NEWS (@MDNnewss) July 15, 2024

The department immediately responded that it was appalled by the incident and raided Goodwood prison in Cape Town.

Officials found contraband including, sharp objects, knives, cellphones, and modems, which had been smuggled into the facility.

The culprit was taken through a disciplinary process and moved to another facility.

Groenewald targets overcrowding in prisons

Also within days of his appointment, Groenewald appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services to present departmental budgets and annual performance plans.

He painted a grim picture of the issues plaguing the department.

“There are many challenges facing the department [including] overcrowding, understaffing, the rundown facilities and infrastructure, scandals, corruption, fraud, ill-discipline and rampant gang activities in our facilities. We need to address these illnesses and problems we have,” he said.

The minister told Members of Parliament that addressing prison overcrowding will be his department’s main priority.

“Yes, we are constrained by the budget cuts. However, we will inject some impetus into the delivery of infrastructure projects and find ways to complete at least 17 infrastructure projects in this 2024/2025 financial year. We do believe that this will go a long way in tackling overcrowding.”

He promised to play an active role in ensuring that the projects are completed without “corruption, exploitation, and on time”.

ALSO READ: Groenewald confirms foreigners with life sentences were paroled… and deported

Analyst says Groenewald has ‘competency and strength to be daring’

Policy analyst Dr Nkosikhulule Nyembezi told The Citizen the FF Plus campaigned on a minimalist platform ahead of elections.

Its campaign was “carefully designed to keep expectations low and targeted a small racial group.

“Its campaign rhetoric of ‘change’ was vague about the government’s proposed means and ends.”

Nyembezi said the party lacked policy specifics that globally define a successful correctional system. Such environments allow individuals to rebuild their lives, develop new skills and contribute positively to society upon release.

“Setting the bar low at the time, to be easily cleared, might be smart politics,” the policy analyst added.

“There are, however, many messages in the minister’s hands-on approach to his role.

“The country has warmed up to the minister that he has the competency and strength to be daring, including in assuring the skilled employees in the department that they have a role to play.

“That means fulfilling hopes he did little to excite and keeping promises he did not make.

“The risk is that the minister attempts to govern as he campaigned and is too timid in office to produce meaningful change.”

However, Nyembezi said Groenewald will not be able to avoid an existential crisis of corruption and incompetence in the department. These have led to prison escapes and inmates orchestrating crime from prison.

“The public will hold the minister’s feet to the fire over achieving the department’s much-needed and ambitious turnaround strategy targets.”

Additional reporting by Faizel Patel, Molefe Seeletsa and Enkosi Selane.