Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has visited a skills development workshop at the Boksburg Correctional Centre on Gauteng’s East Rand. The wood and steel production workshop is a government initiative that seeks to equip offenders with skills that will allow them to reintegrate into society as well as to provide them with accredited qualifications.
The facility is the only correctional centre in Gauteng that houses 210 juvenile offenders, aged between the ages of 16 and 25.
“This has been a very successful story. It has become one of the biggest workshops. There are others across the country; I think about 8 of them, which are already gradually gaining momentum. I think with time they will be able to catch up and would be able to roll it out across the country because it is important that the inmates get the skills so that by the time we release them to the society we are sure that they have something economically to contribute and socially, “ says Lamola.
