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The State Security Agency (SSA) has dismissed claims that it has roped in retired members to assist in foreign operations.

This after media reports said the agency is overlooking current members and opting to deploy retired agency members on foreign operations.

SSA Acting Director General, Ambassador Gab Msimang, called the reports a “continued misinformation and disinformation” campaign.

“There is no truth in the reports that the agency has preferred its retired members for foreign posting at the expense of its young and current members. This is the nefarious agenda and work of people who have taken it upon themselves to peddle lies about the work of the agency,” he said.

Msimang explained that the agency has for years utilised what he called an “approved foreign deployment strategy”.

“Any foreign deployment of members will be conducted according to these established rules and members who have grievances regarding such deployments know the internal processes available to lodge their grievances.

“All the gossip and slander about the deployment of ANC [African National Congress] exiles and sidelining of current members is misinformation that the agency rejects with the contempt it deserves,” Msimang said.

In clarifying the plan to recall retired members, Msimang explained that this was part of a strategy to improve the agency’s vetting backlog.

“The plan to bring on board retired members had nothing to do with foreign posting but a capacity drive to fast track the eradication of the vetting backlog, which is the terrain of the Domestic Branch,” he said.

In a statement, SSA emphasised that its focus remains on “safeguarding of the territorial integrity” of South Africa and its citizens.

“The agency is also firmly on course in the implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Review Panel on National Security. Those remain the strategic focus areas of the agency and any other distraction such as these false reports will be seen for what they are and will not in any way hinder the agency from executing its lawful mandate”.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola says despite the challenging circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the department is working to ensure that it fully delivers and implements its plans for improved service delivery.

He was addressing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Tuesday afternoon.

“Despite this harsh terrain and reality, these departments have not folded their arms, they have been innovative where possible to ensure that which can be done, is fulfilled. A testament to this durability is the department referred to as Office of the Chief Justice.

“It is one step closer to obtaining a clean audit, having obtained an unqualified audit outcome with no material findings and has implemented the case lines projected fully in the Gauteng Division. This has ensured that justice can be served even under the most difficult circumstances,” he said.

Lamola also gave the committee an update on what he called the significant re-engineering of the Justice department’s administration.

“We now have a full complement of Senior Management leadership with a new Director General, Advocate [Doctor] Mashabane, who started steering the ship in the latter part of the financial year. An assessment of the skillset of senior management has been concluded along with culture and climate survey.

“The implementation of corrective actions and consequence management under way from the last financial year are continuing, we completed 16 disciplinary hearings cases which relate to maladministration,” Lamola said.

The minister revealed that the department would also be undergoing three reforms:

Modernisation to improve the front-line services, which are provided to South Africans.

Effective State litigation system, which enables transformed and competitive legal profession.

High skilled personnel who can effect reforms to the criminal justice system and tackle corruption.

Minister Lamola told the committee that although much work still needs to be done, the department is on an upward trajectory.

“On the balance… we can see that rapid decline that we found has been arrested. Whilst there is still a lot of work to be done. We have said to the department the upward trend must continue. The department’s performance was previously standing at 43%, having implemented some of the interventions, the Department achieved a performance of 67% in the last financial year.

“The target for the department is to achieve at least 80% of the annual targets by the end of 2021-22 financial year”.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Justice and Correctional Services Minister, Ronald Lamola, says the department is pursuing disciplinary action against alleged errant officials “without fear or favour”.

He was speaking during an appearance before the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Tuesday.

Lamola said the department is investigating and concluding disciplinary processes against those senior managers who committed what he described as “atrocities” in the department.

“When honourable members in unison said Correctional Services must look at matters of irregular expenditure, lack of consequence management for acts of impunity, maladministration, audit reports and performance, we heeded this call.

“In the last financial year, 64 out of 66 cases for officials, charged and found guilty for corrupt activities were concluded. For the same reporting period, under irregular expenditure, the department had a total of 933 cases and 789 of these cases were investigated and concluded. The department is left with a total of 144 cases to conclude for the last financial year.

“We have impressed to the acting National Commissioner [Makgothi Thobakgale] that consequence management must spread across the department without fear or favour,” he said.

The Minister emphasised that the department is acting speedily, within the prescripts of the law, to resolve all disciplinary issues.

“We will not hesitate to take appropriate actions consistent with government prescripts and legislation to foster a new culture of accountability.

“[W]e don’t want prolonged and selective disciplinary processes which ignore atrocities committed by those in senior management in the department. We have directed that turnaround times for investigating and concluding disciplinary process must show significant improvement,” he said.

Self-sufficiency

When addressing correctional facilities and the inmates, Minister Lamola said the department is moving towards making these facilities more independent through the Self-Sufficiency Model.

The model is aimed at using offender labour to produce food for their own rations and generate an income from production workshops.

“In all correctional centres across the country, no more are we procuring eggs and pork as these are internally produced in sufficient quantities, resulting in savings to the fiscus.

“We want to continue on this path to remove as many items as possible from our procurement list. We are working on capacitating centres by obtaining modern technology to realise improved production,” he said.

The Minister revealed that inmates, parolees and probationers have also been roped in to contribute towards various community empowerment initiatives.

“When the dire conditions in which the child-headed Zungu family in…KwaZulu Natal were exposed, offender labour was utilised to transform the family’s dilapidated house into a decent, fully furnished house.

“When acts of vandalism, rampant looting and destruction of properties in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal erupted, probationers and parolees helped to clean most affected areas to allow economic activities to resume.

“When some of the schools in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Eastern Cape did not have adequate school desks, offender labour was utilised to refurbish desks and chairs to enable learning and teaching to continue in a conducive environment,” he highlighted.

The department’s Self-Sufficiency Model also extends to upskilling inmates with skills that they can use when they leave correctional facilities.

“In the last financial year, offenders were trained in…hairdressing, new venture creations, building and plastering, tiling, welding, painting, furniture and cabinet making, wood machining, textile skills, bricklaying, motor mechanics, plumbing, vegetable production and other agriculture related training. We will be launching a national arts day during the course of this month,” Lamola added.

COVID-19

The Minister said the department is continuing with its vaccination drive which has seen at least 115 000 officials and inmates vaccinated.

According to Lamola, 239 officials and 101 inmates have died due to COVID-19 complications and there are currently 73 active cases of the virus within correctional facilities.

“We are, through various campaigns, working towards eliminating vaccine hesitancy so that we can save lives. Vaccine hesitancy and fear of side effects have been cited by most officials and inmates as reasons for them not availing themselves for vaccination,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency