wfn.org | PRISON PROPOSALS

[keith.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

March 7, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

97.3.1.3

SOUTH AFRICA: ANGLICANS SPEAK OUT ON PRISON PROPOSALS

(ENI, Noel Bruyns) A proposal to use underground mine shafts as "super 
maximum security prisons" in South Africa has been slammed by the
country's Anglican bishops as callous and offensive.

On Tuesday (4 March), Khulekani Sitole, Commissioner of the Department
of Correctional Services, told a press conference: "There are criminals
within our system who have made it clear that they are not prepared to
conform to the norms of a democratic society - people like murderers,
rapists and armed robbers who repeatedly transgress. 

"They are animals and must never see daylight again," he said.

The proposal to use disused mines follows increasing overcrowding in
prisons and a high number of prison escapes. According to figures from
last year, most of the country's 236 prisons were overcrowded, with
about 60 prisoners squeezed into a cell designed for 18 people.

The Anglican Synod of Bishops said in a statement released in
Johannesburg yesterday (5 March) that it was "deeply shocked and
offended by the callous suggestion".

Mr Sitole's reference to murderers and rapists as animals "leaves one 
shuddering as to how prisoners are treated at present".

Mr Sitole's statements came in the same week as a call by the Anglican 
Archbishop of Cape Town, for urgent attention to be paid to the issue of 
prison reform.

The Archbishop made his call on Sunday during a pilgrimage to Robben
Island, the infamous island prison for political prisoners off Cape Town
during the apartheid era. He and President Nelson Mandela had been
incarcerated there.

"We have some of the most overcrowded prisons in the world," Archbishop 
Ndungane said. "I believe the time has thus come for us, as a nation, to 
address prison reform with the seriousness it deserves. Prison reform is 
long overdue. 

"It is not a new issue for the church to address, although we have not
done it in a sustainable way in this land," Archbishop Ndungane said.

Other non-governmental organisations and human rights groups have
reacted with outrage to the proposal to use old underground mine shafts
as prisons. Golden Miles Budhu, president of the South African
Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights, described it as a "barbaric
proposal".