Prison budget reduced to tears

2003-04-10 00:38

Anesca Smith

Cape Town - The national commissioner of correctional services, Linda Mti, and African National Congress (ANC) MP Percylia Mothoagae, drove each other to tears in parliament on Wednesday.

Mti was answering questions on his department's budget from the standing committee on public accounts, when he and Mothoagae both became emotional. The meeting had to be adjourned for ten minutes.

Mti came under fire because correctional services have been battling for years to have its internal audit unit functioning properly, while questions of corruption continuously plague the department. Of the 20 posts in the unit, 12 are vacant.

He also had to answer questions from Mothoagae and the auditor-general, Shauket Fakie, on how performance bonuses would be allocated and how prison managers would be evaluated.

In his reaction, Mti said he would first answer Fakie's question before addressing Mothoagae's "irritating question".

When Mothoagae's turn came to ask more questions after teatime, she unexpectedly burst into tears and left the meeting.

A shocked silence hung over the meeting until Mti also started to cry and left.

He said on Wednesday afternoon that he was shocked by Mothoagae's reaction.

"We know each other and she should know that I would not have treated her disrespectfully. She initially said the issue we were addressing at that particular time was 'irritating' and I only reacted to those words by repeating them."

Mti also joked in the meeting that he would soon have to put pressure on the police and the department of justice because more than a third of the prison population were awaiting-trial prisoners.

South African prisons can accommodate 110 000 inmates, but they are currently housing 180 000, 68 000 of which are awaiting-trial prisoners.

- Die Burger