The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) must be closed as it is a huge disservice to law enforcement. For starters, it is responsible for the current turmoil around the arrests of [Julius] Mkhwanazi, [Lt-Gen Dumisani] Khumalo and others. This is yet another instalment of tit-for-tat between Idac and SAPS, which is a serious liability on our law enforcement resources.
Idac operations seem to be far removed from the original mandate of investigating cases flowing from the Zondo commission.
The smart way forward is to close Idac urgently and substitute it with a Zondo commission task team under SAPS, similar to the Madlanga commission task team. The task team approach is working just fine by delivering prosecution-led investigative results, uprooting corruption and ensuring accountability within the law enforcement ranks.
It doesn’t make sense to house Idac under the National Prosecuting Authority, where it serves as fertile ground for a glaring duplication of functions and “turf war” shenanigans.
- Thabo Shaku, GaMasemola
Migrant crackdown worsens prison overcrowding
As calls grow for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa, law enforcement agencies have responded with increased immigration-related arrests. While the broader implications of these operations deserve separate discussion, there is a critical question that policymakers appear reluctant to answer: where is the space to accommodate the growing number of arrested immigrants in an already overcrowded correctional system?
Many individuals arrested for immigration-related offences are processed through the courts and in some cases convicted before being transferred to facilities such as the Lindela Repatriation Centre to await deportation. This can take months, and during that period they become part of an already strained correctional population.
Earlier this year, commissioner of correctional services Samuel Thobakgale acknowledged that South Africa’s prisons are under severe pressure. Official figures indicate an overcrowding rate of nearly 60% in correctional facilities.
However, statistics often fail to capture the reality inside prison walls. Having spent a considerable amount of time at Johannesburg Correctional Centre, I can state that some sections appear far more overcrowded than official figures suggest. In some sections of the awaiting-trial facility, it is not uncommon to find between 80 and 100 inmates occupying cells originally designed for fewer than 35 people.
Many detainees are forced to sleep on cold concrete floors, often without adequate bedding. In most instances, the head of the cell demands payment of as much as R4,000 from newly admitted prisoners in exchange for access to better sleeping arrangements.
Foreign nationals arrested for immigration-related offences are the most vulnerable. My interactions with immigrants facing trial for serious offences revealed a recurring pattern. For many, their first encounter with the criminal justice system was not for a violent crime but for immigration-related offences — simply for lacking the proper documentation. It was often after that initial arrest that they were exposed to criminal networks, learnt how the system operated, and developed the connections that later enabled more serious criminal activity.
Correctional facilities are intended to rehabilitate and reintegrate individuals into society. Unfortunately, overcrowding undermines these objectives. Prisons risk becoming environments that reinforce criminal behaviour rather than correct it.
If South Africa is serious about reducing prison overcrowding and managing immigration effectively, alternative approaches must be considered. Possible solutions include dedicated immigration detention facilities, fast-track immigration courts, better administrative deportation procedures, greater use of alternative sentencing for minor offences — including restorative justice initiatives — and addressing corruption within correctional facilities.
The debate surrounding undocumented immigration should not be separated from the realities of prison overcrowding. Without meaningful reforms, South Africa risks worsening a crisis that correctional authorities themselves have repeatedly acknowledged. A balanced approach that protects national security, respects human dignity, and promotes efficient administration of justice is not only possible but necessary.
- KD Oniyide, e-mail
Bring on the elections
Recently, photocopiers in Ethekwini municipality libraries have become “ornamental”. They are nonfunctional due to non-availability of paper and/or toner. This has negatively impacted the public, notably learners in all three tiers.
Durban’s mayor Cyril Xaba and city manager Musa Mbhele are overall accountable for this debacle. The matter must be urgently attended to by rectifying supply chain processes and shaking up relevant staff.
The municipality’s prime constitutional obligation is the provision of effective and timeous service delivery. Time and again the city has failed miserably in this regard. The ongoing water crises, constant power outages, faulty traffic signals, countless potholes, filth, litter, overgrowth and illegal trading, inter alia, speak volumes.
The mayor and city manager have proved to be serial underperformers. They have remuneration packages that amount to a few million rand each per annum, yet value for money is seriously lacking. They have an obligation to ensure that both councillors and staff perform capably.
Thankfully, there will be local government elections on November 4.
- Simon T Dehal, Verulam
Gen Z, make your X count
Barney Mthombothi (“Not voting is a betrayal of the class of ’76″, June 21) is spot on. It’s only through constructive youth participation in democracy that the economic downward slide can stop. The youth of 1976 through their revolutionary action paved the political future of South Africa for the benefit of all, not for a select few through broad-based BEE.
The youth who launched the Soweto riots played a significant role in the collapse of apartheid but the youth today are not benefiting. They are depressed and some have become substance-abuse victims.
Today’s youth are indeed a betrayal of the glorious achievements of the 1976 youth.
Mawonga Deliwe, in his letter “A way to boost the transformation of TVETS”, June 21, touches on the “practice-based nature of teaching”, which is very close to my idea of the role that schools can play through debate, public speaking and subject societies, for example an historical society, to inculcate youth participatory democracy.
Topics related to participatory democratic practice in schools can engage children in mock elections to teach them, especially 18-year-olds, to register for the November elections.
Our youth must know that education is linked to job creation. In this way they will soon note that voting for a progressive political party is the only way of generating a successful job-creating, sustainable economy.
I call upon every adult to bring this very significant awareness to our youth. Make certain that 18-year-olds are registered to vote and engage them in constructive political debate on today’s economic realities of job creation. Blaming apartheid for the economic demise is a dog’s bark up a wrong tree. Instead, bark at political parties that threaten to destroy job-creating policies, especially corruption-riddled political parties that have no hope of being rehabilitated.
- Moikwatlhai Seitisho, Phuthaditjhaba
No Hill-Lewis fury here
Re “DA fury at Hill-Lewis ‘betrayal’” (June 21). The “fury” at [John] Steenhuisen’s proposed axing from the cabinet you refer to is probably limited to a few DA caucus members and insiders. It is certainly not the opinion of farmers who have lost cattle to foot and mouth disease, nor is it the opinion of the majority of voters.
DA supporters I have spoken to agree that Steenhuisen was an excellent chief whip but is a good example of the “Peter Principle”, where a solid performer is promoted until he reaches the level of his own incompetence.
Geordin Hill-Lewis did the right thing and should be applauded for putting the country first.
- Paul McNaughton, Stellenbosch
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