TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 8

Subsection 6

■ ORGANISATION, ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

24 To build, protect and maintain a new human rights culture in line with the new dispensation in South Africa, the Commission recommends that:

CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES COMMIT THEMSELVES TO THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS WITH RENEWED VIGOUR. THE COMMISSION WELCOMES THE PRINCIPLES ENCAPSULATED IN THE EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT, WHILE RECOGNISING THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT, BUSINESS AND LABOUR TO FIND VIABLE WAYS TO IMPLEMENT ITS PROVISIONS, PRIOR TO THE PROMULGATION OF THE ACT. THE PRINCIPLES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS. TO FACILITATE THIS, TRAINING IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR ALL SECTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIETY NEED TO BE GIVEN PRIORITY. SPECIAL ATTENTION, IN THIS REGARD, NEEDS TO BE GIVEN TO THE ERADICATION OF INEFFICIENCY AND THE PROMOTION OF A CULTURE OF HARD WORK AND HONESTY.

THE GOVERNMENT MUST ENSURE THAT THE RULE OF LAW, HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICE, TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE ROOTING OUT OF CORRUPTION AND OTHER FORMS OF CRIMINALITY AT ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY ARE SERIOUSLY ADDRESSED.

■ PRISONS

25 Apart from the need for greater security at all our prisons, it is the view of the Commission that the bureaucratic organisation of the Department of Correctional Services makes it particularly difficult to institute the appropriate initiatives to promote transformation. The relatively closed institutional culture of Correctional Services also makes it difficult to ensure that the moral and legal imperatives of law are implemented at the level of daily practice. The authority of prison officers and even that of heads of prisons tends, in practice, to derive from the prison hierarchy and an entrenched culture within which gross violations of human rights occurred in the past, rather than the norms of prison law, human rights law and the Constitution.

Training of prison personnel

26 The Commission recommends that:

PRISON OFFICERS RECEIVE HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING, AS A BASIC GUIDE FOR TREATMENT OF PRISONERS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PRISON SYSTEMS.

PRISON STAFF BE ADEQUATELY TRAINED IN PRISON LAW, THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES, ETHICS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION.

PRISON STAFF RECEIVE TRAINING IN CREATIVE AND HUMANE WAYS OF MOTIVATING PRISONERS TO REGAIN THEIR HUMAN DIGNITY AND CO-OPERATE WITH THE REHABILITATION PROGRAMMES IN PRISONS.

ALL PRISON STAFF INVOLVED IN THE HEALTH CARE OF INMATES RECEIVE APPROPRIATE TRAINING TO ENABLE THEM TO UNDERSTAND AND DEAL WITH THE MENTAL STRESS OF IMPRISONMENT.

Rehabilitation of prisoners

27 The Commission recommends that:

SKILLS TRAINING FOR PRISONERS BECOME A PRIORITY.

ALL INMATES BE INFORMED OF THEIR BASIC RIGHTS AND RECEIVE A COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THEIR CHOICE. THEY SHOULD ALSO HAVE ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICE.

ALL PRISON WARDERS RECEIVE TRAINING WHICH WILL ENABLE THEM TO RECOGNISE THE BASIC NEEDS OF PRISONERS IN THIS REGARD.

PRISONERS RECEIVE TRAINING IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND NON-VIOLENT WAYS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION.

COUNSELLING BE MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL PRISONERS.

PRISONERS HAVE ACCESS TO LITERACY CLASSES AND SKILLS TRAINING. WORK SESSIONS SHOULD BE DESIGNED TO PROMOTE REHABILITATION, RATHER THAN SIMPLY BEING PUNITIVE HARD LABOUR.