OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday
THE success rate of arresting, prosecuting and convicting criminals in South Africa is not good enough to deter these criminals from making a life out of crime, says KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali.
Speaking at the opening of the new C-max prison, Qalakabusha, at Empangeni, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mtshali said in the absence of the death penalty, the country was forced to rely on imprisonment as a means of discouraging such behaviour.
The likelihood of punishment and the kind of punishment meted out had to serve this purpose.
“…our rate of arrest, prosecution and conviction is not high enough to provide the first level of discouragement. Far too many criminals can take a chance on not being apprehended, on getting away with armed robbery. For much of the time crime actually pays,” Mtshali said.
Furthermore prisoners, even violent criminals, were being released in a bid to alleviate massive overcrowding in the country’s prisons.
Prisons were currently housing about 180000 prisoners while there was space to only accommodate about 100000.
“We have to avoid the impression in the outside community that even violent and brutal criminals can assume that they will serve minimum sentences,” Mtshali said.
The more prison facilities existed the less pressure there would be on the authorities to release prisoners early.
“I would assume that with the provision of more facilities the prison authorities can afford to delay parole if there is doubt about the desirability of releasing a particular prisoner early.”
Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini blamed the escalation in crime on the failure of government to fulfil election promises.
“People expected a better life for everyone immediately after the 1994 elections. Instead of an expected increase of employment opportunities, 500000 people have lost their jobs. This means that lack of social stability is worsening,” Zwelithini said.
Qalakabusha, which was built at a cost of nearly R200 million, can house just over a thousand serious offenders. It was built as one of the so-called “new generation” prisons – which aims at treating prisoners more humanely and would contribute to rehabilitating them before they were released back into the community.