Grand Opening Speech
Deputy Commissioner of Correctional Services of South Africa, Mr. Alfred Tsetsane
Introduction
There is another side to the problem of law enforcement that doesn't receive much attention in the news media, yet looms very large on the world scene. One of the fastest growing populations on Earth resides behind prison bars.
Our next speaker comes to us with years of experience both confronting and working to reverse the vicious circle of revolving-door justice.He is the past chairman of the Training Committee of the Central, Eastern and Southern Countries of Africa, and has served as a personal envoy to the South African Minister of Justice for international conferences on substance abuse, crime, violence and HIV, on both sides of the Atlantic.
He comes to us today with a very personal vision of how we, as a culture, can change our societal liabilities into assets.
Please welcome, the Deputy Commissioner of Correctional Services of South Africa, Mr. Alfred Tsetsane.
Speech
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor to speak to you today on behalf of my nation's department of correctional services, and on behalf of the government of the Republic of South Africa.
In his inaugural speech in 1994, the first democratically elected President of my country, Mr. Nelson Mandela, said this:
"Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
"Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human SOUL and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for ALL."
It can also be said today, that all of us, by our presence here, and by our CELEBRATION in this grand opening, are opening a way to glorious life for all humanity through The Way to Happiness.
I strongly believe that my nation needs this moral code more than ever. The transition to a constitutional democracy carries with it a number of challenges for state agencies.
In the past nine years, the government has been formulating policy and establishing strategies and structures to fully transform our country.
The correctional system has shifted its focus from safe incarceration to reducing recidivism through rehabilitation -- to transform prisons from "universities of crime" into centers producing individuals capable of successful re-integration as law-abiding citizens.
It is for this reason that we welcomed an initiative introducing The Way to Happiness programme in our correctional system.
The programme now running in our centres is bearing fruit, judging from the increasing level of participation, from prison to prison.
Fifty-nine facilities now deliver The Way to Happiness correspondence course. It shows offenders how to live in harmony with fellow human beings.
The success stories we receive every week from inmates speak volumes of the effects of this programme.
It has actually created role models, who we are proud to have speak in public platforms on their success.
Yet what speaks even louder is this:
Not one of those who have done The Way to Happiness program and been released from prison, has since returned.
Our challenge now is to translate The Way to Happiness teaching material into the eight indigenous languages of South Africa.
With this impressive new facility, I believe we will soon achieve that goal, so we can also take these teachings across our nation.
We are going to need many more activists and ambassadors of The Way to Happiness to make moral regeneration a reality through the whole of Africa and the World.
There is a groundswell of African citizens seeking to rediscover themselves, to become the very best they can be.
I believe that The Way to Happiness is a non-political, non-partisan and all-inclusive answer, well positioned to set the agenda of moral reconstruction in the world.
I want to thank your volunteers for all they have done to realize our goal of shaping the agenda for Corrections in Africa.
We welcome this opportunity to strengthen our partnership in creating a better life for all South Africans.
I know we will make it so.
[PAUSE]
And most of all, I want to express my gratitude to L. Ron Hubbard a man who not only predicted that the next great civilization on this planet could arise from Southern Africa, but also provided the means to make it come true.
Thank you.