'What's more cruel... jailing someone who can't afford bail, or corporal punishment?' - Pieter Groenewald
The Minister of Correctional Services of South Africa has suggested we bring back corporal punishment.
FILE: Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald appears before the National Council of Provinces to answer questions for oral reply on 4 September 2024. Picture: GCIS
702 and CapeTalk’s Mandy Wiener speaks with Minister of Correctional Services of South Africa, Pieter Groenewald.
Listen below from 37:38:
Groenewald has made a controversial suggestion to manage overcrowding in prisons.
He suggests that we ‘open the debate’ about a return of corporal punishment, specifically for those arrested for minor offences who cannot afford to pay minimum bail.
The corporal punishment used would be lashes with a heavy or light cane - depending on the crime.
“The court must decide how many lashes, and with what type of cane.”
- Pieter Groenewald, Minister of Correctional Services of South Africa
The practice was outlawed in prisons in 1996 by an act of Parliament.
He says that there are currently 108,000 beds which are enough to cover the 104,000 sentenced prisoners in our country.
However, there are also 60,000 detainees waiting for trial, and no space to accommodate them.
2,500 of these detainees are low level offenders who cannot afford bail of R1,000 or less.
Groenewald says these detainees can be imprisoned for as long as a year before trial.
“Which is more inhumane... a person who can’t afford R500 bail sitting in prison for a year, or corporal punishment?”
- Pieter Groenewald, Minister of Correctional Services of South Africa
He adds that if the person is arrested, they are more likely to become repeat offenders when they are released.
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