Parly's Correctional Services committee satisfied with efforts to provide education to inmates
On Wednesday, Ramolebeng led the committee’s oversight visit to the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - The chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on Correctional Services, Anthea Ramolebeng, says she’s satisfied with efforts to provide education to inmates.
On Wednesday, Ramolebeng led the committee’s oversight visit to the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
The visit aims to assess the prison’s conditions, where some of the most dangerous and high-profile convicts are detained.
The UNISA Hub is a section at the Kgosi Mampuru Correction Centre that provides inmates with the opportunity to pursue higher education qualifications.
Under the watchful eye of numerous prison wardens, the inmates, dressed in orange jumpsuits, are given textbooks and secured laptops to pursue their studies.
Ramolebeng expressed satisfaction that some inmates are on track to complete their Master's Degrees.
"There inmates that indicated that they came in with standard 5, which is grade 7. There are those who indicated that they came in with grade 12 but currently, they are sitting with a degree or an honour’s. So those are success stories that the society needs to know about."
An inmate with 24 months left on his sentence has expressed gratitude for the opportunity to earn an accounting science degree while in prison.