Public debate ensued in Riebeeck East on Wednesday as the community met to discuss plans to build a child and youth care centre adjacent to the Mooimeisiesfontein Centre.
Public debate ensued in Riebeeck East on Wednesday as the community met to discuss plans to build a child and youth care centre adjacent to the Mooimeisiesfontein Centre.
After the implementation of the Child Justice Act on 1 April the previously proposed “place of safety”, which had been used to accommodate and rehabilitate juvenile criminals, was redefined as a care centre for “children in conflict with the law” eight months ago.
This meeting was the second of its kind and forms part of the feasibility and public participation process to establish whether building can go ahead or not.
Makana councillor for Ward 3, Zamuxolo Peter, presented the residents gathered at Alfred Dike Community Hall with the municipality’s proposal.
Making mention of the infrastructural improvements that were attracted to Alicedale by the building of a four star hotel, Peter suggested that the care centre could be a similar catalyst in Riebeeck East.
“You seem to have forgotten where we have come from,” he said. “When I grew up there was no tarred road, this hall was not here, we need to bring change because without change there will be no jobs.”
According to the presentation made by Department of Justice representative Petrus Ockhuis, Riebeeck East has an 80% unemployment rate.
The proposed development will employ labour for between 18 and 24 months while the centre is built, after which it can source skilled and unskilled staff from the community. Furthermore, the food required to feed the occupants will be supplied locally.
Ockhuis also made mention of Riebeeck East’s relatively high crime rate for so small a population as 40 dockets per month are opened in the area.
Peter added that the care centre would improve, not degrade, security in the area. He said that not only were escapes unlikely but if the care centre was established the local police station would become operational 24 hours a day, rather than closing at 7pm as it does now, and the mobile court’s services would be extended.
The Riebeeck East centre is expected to follow a similar model to Mtata’s Sikhuselekile Centre, incorporating accommodation, sports fields and a vegetable garden behind a four metre high electrified fence, 24- hour security and surveillance cameras.
Despite this, many community members expressed concern about potential escapes. The Child Justice Act has made it illegal for the police to detain children in the same space as adult criminals.
According to Captain Syed Cassim, the Grahamstown SAPF uses valuable resources and taxpayers’ rands taking arrested children to the closest care centre in Port Elizabeth.
He said that without a centre in the vicinity the child is likely to be released into his or her parents’ custody.
A representative of Grahamstown Child Welfare, who asked not to be named, said that the importance of separating young offenders from experienced criminals should not be underestimated.
She felt that in the previous system children learnt to be “career criminals” through their exposure to experienced criminals and prison culture, while a care centre offered them learning programmes which open their eyes to other, more productive opportunities.
