Inmates who achieved top scores during the recent matric results were charged with the responsibility of being the change they wanted to see in the world‚ as Correctional Services minister Michael Masutha encouraged them to stay the course.

Masutha was the keynote speaker at an awards ceremony for top matriculants at Durban’s Westville Prison on Tuesday.

“You all here need to be the change you want to see in the world … it is up to you now‚” he said.

Masutha said that when looking at the triple challenge of poverty‚ inequality and unemployment facing society‚ one should be cognisant that changing it “will not happen overnight”.

“This comes after a century of social and economic exclusion and people were denied a fair opportunity to develop alongside their fellow citizens.”

“The net result is the kind of social-economic settings like townships and other places where people live on top of each other in circumstances conducive to crime.

"We will not overcome the high levels of crime until we have succeeded in reversing this well-orchestrated and calculated social engineering‚” he added.  

Inmate Nhlakanipho Mpofana‚ serving an eight-year sentence at Westville Prison for attempted murder‚ was honoured as the country’s top prison matriculant with distinctions in life orientation‚ history‚ tourism and isiZulu.

He and others were awarded medals‚ alongside DCS teachers and school officials who had performed exceptionally.