The long-awaited report of the Jali commission into corruption and maladministration in prisons could be out by midyear, commission secretary Charles Frank said on Monday.
”We will do our best but I don’t foresee it being done before the beginning of June,” he said from his office in Durban.
Judge Thabani Jali and his two co-commissioners were busy drafting the report, he said.
”I suspect… it’ll be quite a large report. The hearings have been going on for three years, and there’s a heap of evidence to go through.”
The commission was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki in 2001 and started hearing evidence in February 2002.
Since then it has probed prisons throughout the country and listened to testimony from over 100 people, including prisoners, ex-prisoners, department staff and the public.
The final hearing was in September last year.
It also filed 11 interim reports, none of which have been made public.
Frank said the final report would not be a summary of the interim reports, which were written because evidence showed department employees had committed offences and there was an immediate need for action.
”The final report will deal with the larger issues, what the commissioners found to be the problems and recommendations to put an end to the problems,” he said. – Sapa