Return of corporal punishment? Minister of Education responds
The Minister of Correctional Services made the controversial claim whilst discussing how to curb overcrowding in prisons.
In 1996, corporal punishment was officially abolished in South African schools.
Delivering his budget vote at the National Assembly on Tuesday, 1 July, Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald discussed several challenges within his department.
They included overcrowding, particularly of offenders who could not afford to pay their bail for petty offences. Some of them included minors, as young as 10 years old, who were jailed for stealing loaves of bread.
Groenewald then suggested a debate on reintroducing corporal punishment, which was abolished in South African schools in 1996 under the Corporal Punishment Act, and later the South African Schools Act, specifically Section 10.
In his speech, he said, 'If you look at our criminal justice system, we must start a debate about whether we should bring back corporal punishment.'
'A young person who steals 10 loaves of bread sits in prison and waits about three years for sentencing. Think about whether we should bring back corporal punishment.'
Groenewald added: 'We must consider the costs. Keeping each of these individuals in custody costs the taxpayer R463 per person each day'.
Although Pieter Groenewald's suggestion was met with strong opposition, ACDP leader, Dr Kenneth Meshoe, agreed with the minister's stance, claiming that the 1996 corporal punishment ban had 'fuelled lawlessness in schools'
He said: 'We have seen a number of children acting foolishly. Bullying has increased in schools, rape is taking place in schools much more than before the banning of corporal punishment.
'Many teachers need protection from their own students. Students have learned to attack teachers, some even attack their parents at home. Now these children end up in prisons because there are parents who are brave enough to lay charges against their own children.'
Meshoe added to the National Assembly: 'There's a difference between abuse and correctional discipline. I know that there are some parents out of frustration, who have gone to extremes and used corporal punishment where they shouldn't have used it.'
Although Pieter Groenwald did not specifically indicate that corporal punishment should be reintegrated into schools, Minister of Education Siviwe Gwarube has already firmly rejected the idea.
She simply posted 'No', responding to the fellow minister's suggestion.
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