Mathole Motshekga, chairman of the parliament's committee on Justice and Correctional Services, said that although inmates have rights to access certain things including education, the dance show was unacceptable.
"We are not strippers", say dancers hired to entertain prisoners
"Inmates are there for rehabilitation, they are entitled to education, skills development. They must be treated as human beings but that show is a perfect example of the deepening moral decay in our society," he said.
"For society to take this morally corrupt practices into a facility where we want to rehabilitate people is totally unacceptable and it's not part of what we need to do to rehabilitate inmates."
Pictures of three girls dancing in revealing clothes in front of male inmates during a Youth Month celebration event held at the prison circulated on social media at the weekend, causing an uproar.
'Dancers brought in to entertain inmates for Youth Month event'
Motshekga said that the item to have dancers in the facility was suggested in the planning meeting was but outrightly declined, he says the investigation will reveal how it crept in.
"We got a briefing, we were shown documentation which shows a proposal was made to have this going on and it was rejected outright by the authority. So the item was sneaked in behind the backs of the leadership, I don't know how it was camouflaged."
"What we were happy with is that the authorities did not approve that show and they were very disturbed by it and that's why they immediately launched an investigation. The department also fully supported that, so we are awaiting the outcome of the investigation because that's abhorrent, unacceptable," said Motshekga.
According to Motshekga this should not have been allowed to happen as the inmates are going through a rehabilitation process which will see them going back into their communities as better versions of themselves.
"These inmates are a very young population and they are victims of the problems in society, they committed offenses and now have been given an opportunity to be rehabilitated. So we shouldn't take our morally corrupt practises into those facilities. That's not acceptable."
Status of the investigation is expected to be presented on Friday where the fate of 13 officials including managers and lower ranking officials could be revealed.
13 prison officials in trouble over strippers at Johannesburg Prison
Dancers in prison expose the 'deepening moral decay in our society': Motshekga
Mathole Motshekga, chairman of the parliament's committee on Justice and Correctional Services, said that although inmates have rights to access certain things including education, the dance show was unacceptable.
"We are not strippers", say dancers hired to entertain prisoners
"Inmates are there for rehabilitation, they are entitled to education, skills development. They must be treated as human beings but that show is a perfect example of the deepening moral decay in our society," he said.
"For society to take this morally corrupt practices into a facility where we want to rehabilitate people is totally unacceptable and it's not part of what we need to do to rehabilitate inmates."
Pictures of three girls dancing in revealing clothes in front of male inmates during a Youth Month celebration event held at the prison circulated on social media at the weekend, causing an uproar.
'Dancers brought in to entertain inmates for Youth Month event'
Motshekga said that the item to have dancers in the facility was suggested in the planning meeting was but outrightly declined, he says the investigation will reveal how it crept in.
"We got a briefing, we were shown documentation which shows a proposal was made to have this going on and it was rejected outright by the authority. So the item was sneaked in behind the backs of the leadership, I don't know how it was camouflaged."
"What we were happy with is that the authorities did not approve that show and they were very disturbed by it and that's why they immediately launched an investigation. The department also fully supported that, so we are awaiting the outcome of the investigation because that's abhorrent, unacceptable," said Motshekga.
According to Motshekga this should not have been allowed to happen as the inmates are going through a rehabilitation process which will see them going back into their communities as better versions of themselves.
"These inmates are a very young population and they are victims of the problems in society, they committed offenses and now have been given an opportunity to be rehabilitated. So we shouldn't take our morally corrupt practises into those facilities. That's not acceptable."
Status of the investigation is expected to be presented on Friday where the fate of 13 officials including managers and lower ranking officials could be revealed.
13 prison officials in trouble over strippers at Johannesburg Prison
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending
Latest Videos