Durban - In one of its crime-fighting strategies, the Department of Correctional Services in KwaZulu-Natal donated 100 pairs of shoes to poor school pupils at Khuthala Primary School in Umlazi, on Friday.
When correctional centres (prisons) began experiencing overcrowding, the department came up with strategies to discourage school children from dropping out of schools and becoming criminals, said acting head of Community Corrections at Durban Westville prison Zandile Dlamini.
One of the strategies was to adopt schools and support children from poor households. Dlamini said the department felt the plan was important because the number of juveniles in prison was also increasing.
Apart from dressing kids, Dlamini said they also brought offenders to the adopted school to cut grass and do other maintenance.
“We started this project in 1992 to minimise overcrowding in our prison cells. We felt that rehabilitation alone was not enough and we felt we must come up with means to discourage kids from getting involved in crime,” said Dlamini.
Umlazi schools circuit manager McCord Ngcobo thanked the department and local businesses for their support. He said schools were facing serious challenges to teach pupils with poor backgrounds because they had to deal with problems that were supposed to have been solved at home.
Ngcobo said some of the kids lived with grandparents while their mothers and fathers were involved in drugs, adding others were abused by stepmothers or stepfathers.
Speaking on behalf of businesses Kwazi Ngcobo said as businesses from the township they felt they had to lend a hand as well in assisting local schools.
Ngcobo urged the government to consider assisting people with prison records because even though they repented and served time they were not being employed. He said these prisoners (were forced to) return to criminal activities.
School principal Nobuhle Moloi thanked the department and businesses for their support, adding teachers had become parents of the pupils since they spent more time with them than their biological parents, so supporting them was very important.
The department was assisted by local businesses such as Umkhumbi Towing and Security Services, Oxy Trading 631, Velethathe Investments, N&L Medical Supplies and Ntshebebovu Trading and Projects put a smile on 100 pupils on Friday.
Daily News