By OBAKENG MAJE
7 October 2025 – The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, Kgomotso Ramolobeng, has wished the National Library and the Department of Correctional Services a successful Funda Mzantsi Competition for the year 2025. Ramolobeng said the competition was happening when the committee had prioritized the Eastern Cape for its oversight visits that will start on 6 October 2025.
She further said this is a long running program in conjunction with the National Library and has contributed immensely to the lives of the incarcerated. Ramolobeng added that this week offers a nice context for the surprise oversight visit that the committee is conducting in the provinces of the Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
“We will not tire in ensuring that inmates are treated with dignity. This is an obligation we have in the context of our Ubuntu principles, and the constitutional dispensation whose fundamentals are corrective approach to offenders.
“The committee is fully aware that the society has different opinions on how to handle prisoners but the truth is that the society still has an obligation to ensure that the welfare of these people is guaranteed and that even in chains they are treated with dignity,” she said.
Ramolobeng said the committee will from tomorrow undertake a week-long visit to the Eastern and Western Cape, to assess among others such as Skills Programmes provided to offenders, conditions of detention for both remand and sentenced inmates, treatment offenders who are mothers and overall infrastructure of correctional centres. She said the committee will conduct physical walkabouts of the correction facilities.
“The intention was not so much to catch out officials but to ensure dignity for the most disadvantaged of our society. Funda Mzantsi is an annual reading competition meant to test the literacy competencies of inmates.
“The week-long program is hosted in George, and tests inmates on all aspects of literary works in various South African languages,” said Ramolobeng.
The Guardian 