The prison service might run the biggest “hotel chain” in the country, but it’s not one you would ever want to check into, the country’s former national police commissioner told teens in Khayelitsha last week.
The Usasazo High School pupils had recently completed a leadership programme run by the Safer South Africa Foundation, a non-profit company that helps to improve safety in poor communities.
During the programme, pupils visit police stations, prisons and courts to see how the justice system works.
Once the country’s top cop, Riah Phiyega is now the CEO of the foundation. Speaking at the Andile Msizi Hall, where the teens were given certificates for completing the programme, she thanked the Department of Correctional Services for showing them the realities of prison life. “It’s a ‘hotel’ you must never book a ‘room’ in; it’s not a hotel to be visited,” she said.
Proactive efforts were needed to fight crime, she said, adding, “No child is born a criminal. Somewhere in their life they get educated, inducted, socialised into crime.”
It took everyone’s efforts, not just the police, the courts and the prison services, to ensure citizens’ constitutional rights to safety and security were guaranteed, she said.
“Parents, I want to tell you that the first police station is your house. In my house at sunset, I want to know that windows, garage doors and all doors are closed and the children are in the house.”
Pollsmoor prison official Felicia Subramoney urged the pupils to make the right choices in life. “Life is all about choices, good or bad, the choice is yours. In order to make a change, only you can make that choice for yourself. When you make the choice to change, you need to be consistent.”
And true friends gave encouragement and support, she said. “A friend is not someone who pressures you to do something you are not comfortable with and robs you of your future.”
She added: “The gangs will lure you with big brand clothes, money and sometimes cars, but the day you get caught and sent to prison, they will forget about you and don’t even visit you. They won’t even give your family money to travel and visit you in jail.”
Addressing the parents at the function, she said: “Be your children’s safe space so that they can come to you whenever they are in need. Support and guide them, encourage them and remind them that they are loved. A simple lack of attention can lead your children to go astray and seek the feeling of being loved or a space of belonging by the wrong people”.
