Minister expected to explain 'bring back corporal punishment'

MINISTER of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald will have to explain his recent suggestion that corporal punishment should be revisited to alleviate overcrowding in prisons when he appears before the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services today.

- THEOLIN TEMBO

The minister made the remarks when delivering his budget vote in the National Assembly last week.

Groenewald was addressing the challenges faced by correctional services, including overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure, a rising number of remand detainees, deteriorating facilities, staff shortages, the presence of crime syndicates and gangs within our institutions, and emerging crime patterns.

He said corporal punishment will help ease overcrowding in the country's prisons. Corporal punishment in South African schools was officially banned in 1996.

"If you look at our criminal justice system, and specifically justice, we must start a debate to say, shouldn't we bring back corporal punishment?" Groenewald said.