inmates believe their matric certificate will help them reintegrate into society

A parolee who obtained a bachelor’s admission pass with six distinctions in his 2024 matric examinations believes the future is bright for him.

Bafana Bidi, 22, from Soweto, who achieved an 80% aggregate, believes the department of correctional services’ rehabilitation programmes helped him reintegrate back into the community after he spent time in prison.

Sentenced for the murder of his best friend during an altercation, Bafana said he could only apologise for a deed he would never be proud of.

“I want to thank everyone for supporting me — the teachers and my community — even though I messed up. I apologise to everyone and hope they will find peace in their hearts to forgive me, even those that I have wronged,” he said. 

He said he stabbed his friend once in the heart during an altercation. “I am not proud of what I have done. I committed murder, I murdered my friend. We were close. May his soul rest in peace.”

Bafana, who was incarcerated in 2020 and released in December, wants to pursue studies in either psychology or logistics. 

He said correctional services has done a lot for him. When he arrived in prison he was nothing, just another inmate but today he is something, he said. 

“I want to thank the department for the programmes that we do in the prison. I am thankful for them. To the inmates, they must push their studies. There is a future and a bright one so they mustn’t lose focus, they must stay focused. they must be dedicated to everything they do,” he said. 

Bafana’s mother Nolusindiso Bidi said her son had made her proud after everything they had gone through when she didn’t know what to do as a single parent. She said after the incident she handed him over to the police. 

“I am here today because of him, I am thankful to God. I thank his teachers. I am thankful that I handed him over to the police after what had happened. God gave me the courage to take him on my own and hand him over to the police after he did what he did,” she said. 

She added it was the right thing to do so she could also find closure. “I told him you must go and pay for your sins.”

Someone who also wrote the matric examinations as an inmate was Thembisile Jase, 22, from Carletonville. He is now a parolee and also obtained a bachelor’s pass. Though he wasn’t expecting it, it felt like a dream, he said. 

“I did expect that I was going to pass but not with these remarkable results. It means a lot, especially for a person like me who comes from a marginalised family. It feels like a dream come true.”

He said he was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexual offences but only served two years because of his good behaviour. 

“I was behaving well inside and I was studying. This means a lot to me because I come from a very rough neighbourhood. At least I can motivate my peers who stay in my neighbourhood,” he said. 

Sthemba Ximba, 59, believes when he is released from prison he will be able to begin farming to sustain himself.

Sentenced in 2018, the oldest inmate to write the 2024 matric exams, said he needed to do something while in prison to avoid boredom. 

“When I came to prison I decided to go to school. I started [Adult Basic Education and Training] ABET level 4 because I realised that I will be bored if I am not doing anything,” he said. 

“I also thought that this was my opportunity to learn because I never learnt while I was outside. That’s why I took that opportunity and now I passed my matric.”  

Ximba, from Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal, said he wanted to farm after serving his sentence. 

“At my age, I cannot be hired by any company but I want to start my own thing. Buy my one cow and start farming. Maybe there will be more,” he said. 

He added that learning doesn’t have an age limit. “We learn until we die. I think everyone must have that attitude to say I can learn up until I die because every day we are learning besides education — learning new things,” he said. 

A total of 171 learners from 17 correctional services schools across the country wrote the 2024 matric exams and 104 learners obtained a bachelor’s pass.

Correctional services minister Pieter Groenewald on Friday said he was proud of the class of 2024. He attended the awards ceremony at the Johannesburg Correctional Centre.

The correctional services class of 2024 obtained a 96.2% pass rate. He said the pass rate meant that inmates were dedicated and realised that writing matric examinations was also for their own rehabilitation. 

He added that there were many challenges outside the prison and the reoffending rate of former prisoners was too high. 

“It is also actually reflecting the part of rehabilitation because we have a responsibility that our people can be successfully reintegrated into the communities. We are looking into that. We are going to try to get more of our inmates involved especially when it comes to education.

“We had 171 matriculants passing the NSC examination I would like that for this year that wet have more than 200. We must focus on that,” he said. 

Deputy minister of basic education Makgabo Reginah Mhaule said inmates’ results surpassed the national average in most subjects.

“The inmates most of the time have all the time and even to regret as to ‘why I am here. So I want to do something that is going to change my life, which will make me change the situation when I go back to be integrated into the community.’

“I think that is what is pushing them,” she said. 

TimesLIVE 

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