Johannesburg -
Oscar Pistorius didn't receive preferential treatment while in jail at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
And the authorities plan to open the facility to prove their case.
“We will start opening the doors of our facilities to allow the media to see that we did not give him preferential treatment,” said Correctional Services acting regional commissioner Mandla Mkabela.
He was speaking at the Gauteng regional 30-year service recognition ceremony on Wednesday morning. Warders from various Correctional Services facilities across the country were given awards.
Mkabela said the department had been on the receiving end of negative publicity from the media, and opening the facility would change the public's perceptions of what prisons did.
“We want people to see what we are doing. People think that Oscar was in a fancy cell while he was here, but he wasn’t; it was a normal cell.
“There are perceptions and myths about the department. Those are just myths,” Mkabela said.
There were numerous claims about the former Paralympian who was serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.
He is serving the remainder of his term under house arrest.
Beeld newspaper showed a picture of him enjoying his 29th birthday at the weekend with a group of young children, relatives of his aunt and uncle, and their friends.
The State has appealed Pistorius’s conviction, and the outcome of the appeal will be revealed in the next few weeks.
Mkabela said being a prison warder was a difficult calling that went unappreciated and attracted a great deal of negative publicity, and that was one of the reasons it was important for the department to honour its long-serving members.
“What you do is not a simple feat,” Mkabela told the warders. “One has to overlook the challenges that come with being a warder, especially for as long as 30 years.
“Being responsible for convicts and overseeing their rehabilitation to make sure that they go back into society as better people is not an easy task,” Mkabela said.
He added that the department was embarking on a project which would focus on nurturing scarce skills in order for it to improve its services. These skills were attributed to the medical profession, nursing and social workers.
“What you are doing is a scarce skill in itself; what you need is skill, experience and knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else,” he told the warders.
His sentiments were echoed by one of the recipients of the awards, Richard Malebane, who served at a number of Correctional Services centres across the country and is now in a senior position at Kgosi Mampuru.
“The most challenging thing about Correctional Services is that it is dynamic, and one does not stop learning. It has all the professions in one,” Malebane said.
He added that one of the most challenging aspects of his profession was the unpredictability of convicts. “These are humans. We have to deal with them, their families and normal civilians on a daily basis. You have to switch characters between all three of them. But it’s part of the job,” he said.
The Star
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