GROENPUNT – His visit was in line with Heritage Day celebration across South Africa.
During his visit, Lamola said the department’s Self-sufficiency and Sustainability programme has saved the department more than R100 million during the past financial year.
Lamola said the programme is aimed at giving inmates skills they can use when they leave correctional facilities, while also ensuring that the department becomes self-sustainable through activities such as those in facilities’ production workshops, bakeries, agriculture, skills development, formal education and training as well as through arts and culture.
The minister and his entourage first visited Refeng-Kgotso community were inmates donated a painting on the walls of a community center.
Addressing the media following the launch minister Lamola said the art bases programmes will help inmates for future skills development and starting own businesses instead of looking for jobs.
“The DCS Self-Sufficiency and Sustainability Strategic Framework is not only about the department realising savings and relying less on the fiscus, but it goes further towards creating lasting benefits to be enjoyed by inmates’ post-incarceration.
“The on-demand skills for the market are what we look at when rolling out programmes in our correctional centers. Inmates are being prepared for opportunities where they can be self-employed instead of being jobseekers. All that we ask for is an opportunity where they can demonstrate their worth and commitment to a better life,” he said.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, inmate Mzwakhe Nondeyi (33) said “learning how to do art is a form of making peace with the fact that you messed up and you want to change. This programme is to give one an opportunity to make a living after being rehabilitated. I know I can start somewhere when I’m done serving my sentence”.
“I am happy to be part of the programme and will advice many of our fellow brothers (inmates) to take part to change their lives for the better,” he said.
