Correctional services faces scores of civil claims amid personnel drain
A parliamentary briefing by correctional services officials did little to reassure MPs that there has been progress with its management.
The department allegedly faces 999 civil claims amounting to R284m for a variety of “omissions” such as failing to prevent assault and rape among inmates, as well as breach of contract and unlawful detention. The civil claims were those outstanding at end-December 2019. The correctional services subcommittee of the portfolio committee of justice and correctional services heard on Friday that the department is a “leaking bucket” in terms of its ability to recruit and retain staff. As at February 3 there were 49 vacancies at senior management level, translating into a vacancy rate of 22.7% of the total of 216 posts. The department employs more than 35,000 people. The department has not yet fully implemented an inmate management system that will provide a nationally accessible record of prisonersas well as access to their records by the different units within the same prison. This information is now held on a decentralised basis at the prison where the prisoner is held. The aim is to create one automated, centralised system.
Subcommittee chair Richard Dyantyi (ANC) bemoaned the “high vacancy rate, high turnover rate ... people are going in an out [of the department] and there is no stability. This affects the middle to senior management, and with that you are always going to struggle to perform and deliver on any targets and mandates.”
Chief deputy commissioner for human resources Patrick Mashibini said it was like a “leaking bucket” in that while it filled the staff requirements in a month, the same number or even more left through resignation, natural attrition, transfers and dismissals.
This means continual underspending on employee compensation and returning a “huge amount” of money to Treasury each year.
R25.4bn was allocated to the department in 2019-20.