Programme Director
Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner Nkosinati Breakfast
The Mayor MK Kebe of the hosting Sundays River Municipality
Speaker and Municipal Manager of Sundays River Municipality
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen.

Today’s Eastern Cape Agricultural and Production Workshop Exhibition Day marks a very important milestone in the history of the Department of Correctional Services. It is the first Agricultural and Production Workshop Exhibition Day of the Department of Correctional Services. It also represents a major step towards opening up a historically secretive and unaccountable prison system we inherited in 1994 while also celebrating our achievements as a correctional system of a free and democratic South Africa.

The nation is currently celebrating 20 years of freedom, by showcasing and accounting to the people who entered into a social compact with government for delivering a better society in all respects, including Correctional Services. In our 20 year performance report we have tabulated great improvements in the agricultural production sector of our Correctional System towards realising the following key objectives set by Minister Sibusiso Ndebele:

• Increasing the agricultural knowledge and skills base among offenders to inspire more to take this field as a vocation and career choice where the focus is not only on getting employment but in creating employment after release;
• Increasing productivity in agriculture to meet and exceed our self-sufficiency needs and offset significant costs of running a correctional system to the fiscus; and
• To showcase these improvements to help change public perceptions of low productivity and increase chances of rehabilitation and social re-integration of offenders.

I am happy to inform this august gathering that agricultural production improved significantly since 2009 towards self-sufficiency in a range of agricultural products. That is why we have deemed it fit to showcase this work at our correctional services farms, such as Kirkwood Correctional Center. We are increasingly able to provide decent meals as required in our constitution, legislation and policies to about 156 000 inmates daily, using locally and offender produced products.

We are also providing critical life skills to offenders in the agricultural sector covering the following range of products: pork, chicken, eggs, red meat and vegetables. We are also increasingly venturing into agricultural value addition with production of butter, yoghurt and frozen vegetables in various correctional centres.

We are improving in utilising our 30 000 hectares of irrigation and grazing land nationally, with 3 110 offenders effectively used to achieve higher productivity levels and better results at about 18% less costs than the open market.

Just to help you appreciate the real results achieved between 2009 and 2013, allow me Programme Director to tabulate some:

• Pork production improved from 62.93% of internal consumption to 95.67% at R6.27 (18%) less than the open market;
• Egg production improved from 47% of internal inmate food consumption to 96% at 19% less than the open market; and
• We are also improving in poultry, red meat, vegetables and fruit production.
• Today, you will have the privilege of touring this facility to see for yourself the good work done by our officials in exposing more and more offenders to the knowledge and skills that multiply their chances of worthy and productive lives after release.

Vegetable produce from Amathole, East London, Mthatha and Kirkwood Management Areas is here:

• Furniture manufactured in St Albans Correctional Centre workshop is displayed for eyes to feast;
• Offender Uniform from St. Albans and East London;
• Mthatha and Amathole’s best piggery products are on display.

We are fully conscious that we have just begun to reap the benefits of our focus on agriculture and correctional centre production workshops, but given the potential of this area, there is so much more to be done to fully exploit these areas to help advance rehabilitation and social re-integration of offenders in our society. We are aware of numerous limitations to the full realisation of this potential.

That is why we are taking the following steps going forward:

• Minister Sibusiso Ndebele established a Minister’s Task Team for agricultural production which is investigating and developing a new approach to advancing agricultural production. The Minister’s Task Team has made an exciting preliminary report at the executive management meeting last month.
• We have allocated R15 million tranches in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years respectively for replacing and modernising ailing agricultural equipment.
• We are doing research aimed at exploring the use of security technology including tagging and electronic control of offenders deployed in farms and fields to enhance agricultural production.

This is why today we invited our stakeholders, the public and the media to take a tour of this farm. We are indeed committed to facilitate the transformation of people that harmed society through crime into law abiding and responsible citizens who do not reoffend society. It is against this background that we appeal to you for support to build a formidable correctional system you can all be proud of, because locking offenders and throwing away the key is over.

I know that today is not a day for long speeches, but a day for showcasing real products from a real people’s correctional system. Perhaps we need to also answer, why has Kirkwood been chosen for this showcase of agricultural production?

The answer is simple:

• Kirkwood Correctional Cenre has a sprawling 4 300 hectares of farmland and boasts an active agricultural activity which covers livestock farming including: 284 dairy cows, 264 Heifers, 382 Boer Goats, 4 642 egg layers and 118 Ostrich.
• It is a farming centre that has proved to be a bread-basket of the Eastern Cape Region as thousands of kilo-litres of milk and thousands of kilograms of vegetables that are produced here are delivered to other correctional centres for consumption by offenders.
• The other correctional centres that benefit from the products of this centre are the neighboring St Albans, East London, Cradock, Middelburg, Grahamstown, Sada, etc.
• Construction is underway at this centre for the expansion of the dairy which will improve its milking capacity by 81% from 110 cows to 200 cows per day.
• The farm has also game such as Kudu, Bushbuck and Duiker.

The level of productivity in the farm for period 1 April 2013 to 31 February 2014 has been as follows:

• 198 382 kg of Vegetables
• 483 567 liters of Milk
• 35 672 kg of Red meat
• 98 863 dozens of eggs

I am happy with progress made thus far, but I urge everyone involved to double his or her efforts to work harder and also smarter to deliver on our justifiable expectations and aspirations.

As Chairperson of the African Correctional Services Association of heads of correctional and prison services, South Africa has also entered into bilateral agreements with other SADC countries to advance the analysis of needs, skills development in our farms and towards offsetting the costs of running a correctional centre. The signed Memoranda of Understanding include Lesotho and Mozambique.

We believe agriculture and production workshops are un-paralleled in providing a life line to tens of thousands of offenders who are illiterate or under educated in our care. To fully build this hope for a better life we need to work together.

I thank you.