The condemnatory revelations made at the Zondo Commission (The State Capture Enquiry), concerning the reckless financial decisions taken by the management of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), should not come as a surprise. These are with regard to  the outsourcing of some of its Correctional Centres Kitchens (Catering Services), to the organisation Bosasa. The African National Congress (ANC), on coming to political power, adopted the previous regime’s privatisation policy as their own. Unfortunately, it was an “economic stimulus” only to enrich a few black elites, closely associated with the ANC.  This contradicted the grandiose ideals and aspirations espoused in the Freedom Charter and of course, the needs of previously disadvantaged communities.

The Bosasa project was implemented with a great loss to the workers of DCS. In effect, it was merely a confirmation of the ANC’s goal to pursue the mandate to build the wealth of the black elite on the backbones of the workers, just as the wealth of apartheid was created. In the meantime, the workers had to surrender their rights and benefits, whilst submitting themselves to the desires of power hungry mongrels, running the department like mafia cheerleaders. Among the consequences, the main duty of the DCS (safe custody of inmates, their rehabilitation and their reintegration into their respective communities, etc.) was compromised, including the safety of Correctional Officials. This could only succeed with the cooperation of most of the unions organising workers in this sector. The Police and Prisons  Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) supported this managerial strategy, regardless of the negative impact it had on the workers, deceiving them into  accepting these schemes of the ANC, as progressive and innovative.

Since the Zondo revelations, high profile meetings and visits were organised between  DCS management and ministry and the various affected centres. These meetings were aimed at the reintegration of those outsourced facilities to DCS. During the Bosasa operation, workers in DCS were at all times still involved, but only in a supporting capacity. Prior to this Bosasa scheme, all Correctional Services  kitchen facilities were operated by DCS workers; without real difficulties, by qualified catering officials. Those subsequent meetings and visits from DCS management and ministry did not result in a successful reintegration of those facilities. Nor did the appointment of new staff. There was little commitment from them to comply with the constitutional mandate, amongst others, to create a safe and prosperous South Africa. Instead the ANC-appointed managers continued pursuing economic policies of impoverishment, with  dire consequences for the workers; their exposure to corruptive activities; criminal cartels who run correctional facilities into the ground, inmates having access to things they are not entitle to, etc.

The reintegration of these facilities is once again subjected to the administrative discretion of those managers implicated at the Zondo Commission. The outcome of all this is failure to take appropriate remedial steps, to stop this unscrupulous waste of taxpayer’s hard earned monies. Things are left to fail, because the current qualified officials are either not part of the ANC’s affirmative action agenda while their skills are patent, but their qualifications not recognised.

The purpose of these failures seem to be two-fold; (1) The maintenance of the incapacity of these catering facilities will establish the need for Bosasa operations in DCS; and (2) then to ultimately avoid disciplinary action and criminal prosecution. There are also political implications, like the pursuing of the ANC’s policies of impoverishment against the historically oppressed South Africans, in favour of corporate greed and lust. These policies are not intended to ultimately abolishing capitalism, but to redefine it in the context of a so-called democratic dispensation. It is also evident that the ANC and its allies are intensifying their assault on the working class by suppressing workers rising up against these unfair discriminating neo-liberal economic policies. This is also done by  declaring certain public sector, like DCS as essential services, without privileges and benefits.

It is time for the workers (Correctional Officials) to awaken from their sleep and stop tolerating this persistent oppression from the ANC and its allies who cultivate corporate greed and mismanagement of public resources by incompetent managers. We should unite against these suppressive forces by not submitting to them.  We must demand equality and justice in our workplaces. We, as the workers, should also demand the immediate suspension of all implicated managers, followed by the speedy institution of disciplinary action and/or criminal prosecution. For too long have we relinquished our rights to a managerial corps that strip us of all our benefits and authority to operate our Correctional Facilities. We should advance  the struggle for a socialist democracy, that is drastically needed for all South Africans.

Vexed CS Worker