Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-11-14 Reporter: John Scott Reporter:

De-List Corruption as a Crime, and Build Special VIP Prisons

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-11-14

Reporter

 John Scott

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

It is now clear that special jails should be built for the better class of criminal, particularly those government officials and politicians whose only crime is corruption.

In fact, for the sake of the nation's reputation, corruption should be de-listed as a crime. Otherwise, foreign observers may get the impression that half the people running the country are criminals, whereas half definitely aren't.

You can't throw them in with a lot of skollies. Correctional Services are doing their best at the moment to keep the country's respectable crooks away from the common mob, but at the rate sentences are being passed, luxury single cells will be increasingly difficult to find. Separate prisons with guest suites, bar facilities, heated swimming pools and entertainment allowances would do the trick.

It would save prisoners having to go home every weekend to enjoy these amenities, and run the risk of arriving late back at the prison because of car trouble, as Tony Yengeni did on Sunday, though he was part of a three-car entourage.

They must all have picked up punctures on the same trip.

Like Allan Boesak, Yengeni is doing time at Malmesbury prison, where the warders are now becoming used to treating VIPs with great deference in the cells. If they play their cards right, Yengeni could put in a good word for them with Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour about a pay rise.

I just hope that up in KwaZulu-Natal Schabir Shaik is being accorded the same respect. But what if an even more important person (no names, no packdrill) ends up in jail?

He will suffer a huge anti-climax if, after the day has officially been declared a half-holiday for all workers and 10 000 supporters carry him shoulder-high to the prison gates, he finds he actually has to be locked up. Far rather prepare in advance an easy come-and-go institution, with discount holiday flights to Mauritius once a month, for parole purposes.

The SABC might also consider offering such prisoners a regular TV slot on the 7pm news, enabling them to protest their innocence. Snuki Zikalala could personally do the interviews.

Even if they are not innocent, they are bound to be released years early for good behaviour, because once they are in prison they behave extraordinarily well.

A prison official of my acquaintance remarked: "If only they had behaved well before they went to jail, they wouldn't have gone to jail."

Though Ngconde Balfour has to find suitable accommodation for more and more corrupt VIPs, he has vowed to stamp out fraud and corruption in his own department.

The jails will be nice and handy for those who already work in them, but they are unlikely to get the Yengeni treatment.

The most they can expect is to have their bars painted green, which is a recommendation of the prison service's "Sustainable Development Report" to make criminals feel better and more in touch with the outside world. Yengeni will demand more than green paint, unless it's on a new four-by-four.

With acknowledgements to John Scott and Cape Times.