It is a grotesque irony in our country that a convicted murderer can take the life of an innocent baby girl, be sentenced to prison, and still receive three meals a day, clean water, warm shelter, electricity, education, even train as a medical doctor. Meanwhile, the devastated family of that child often continues to live in poverty, without reliable access to clean water, safe housing, or functioning schools.
This stark disparity speaks to a moral and systemic failure. It is a failure that ActionSA has repeatedly raised: our government seems more committed to rehabilitating criminals than to serving the people who follow the law and uphold our democracy.
Inmates in South African prisons are guaranteed uninterrupted utilities, structured meals, healthcare services, and the right to education. Some prisoners have emerged with professional qualifications, while families outside, whose lives have been torn apart by these same individuals, continue to struggle without even basic services. This is not justice, it is inversion.
Contrast this with life in Mpumalanga’s forgotten communities:
- Families relying on paraffin or firewood for heat and light.
- Women walking kilometres daily to fetch unfiltered water from streams.
- Children studying by candlelight, risking fires and eye damage in the process.
- Pit toilets that collapse and kill.
- Rural clinics where medication is often out of stock and staff are overworked or absent.
And then imagine the same mother, grieving her child, knowing that the person who took her baby’s life sleeps more safely, eats more consistently, and learns more accessibly behind bars than her surviving children ever could. This is the bitter irony we must confront and reject.
Yes, our Constitution protects human dignity, for all. But that dignity must never come at the expense of law-abiding citizens. ActionSA strongly believes that dignity must begin with those who respect the law, not those who violate it.
When our state allocates more reliable services to inmates than to indigent households, something is deeply wrong. That is why ActionSA proposes the following:
- Service Equity Audits: Government must publish annual comparisons of service provision to prisoners versus impoverished communities. Any imbalance must be corrected through targeted budget reallocations.
- Redirect Non-Essential Prison Spending: Resources spent on “luxury rehabilitation” must be re-routed toward education, electricity, housing, and water for those living in conditions more dire than our jails.
- Enforce Community Service for Offenders: Convicted offenders, particularly those not serving life sentences, should be required to engage in structured public works, such as maintaining roads, parks, or public sanitation, to reduce the burden on taxpayers and help repay their societal debt.
- Introduce Minimum Service Standards for Municipalities: Just as prisons are held to national service standards, municipalities should be audited against minimum benchmarks. Any municipality falling below a standard in sanitation, energy, or education must trigger national intervention.
This is not about vengeance, it’s about balance. Rehabilitation matters, yes. But how can we talk about rehabilitation in prisons while thousands of children grow up in communities where schools are collapsing, toilets are unsafe, and the tap hasn’t worked in years?
Justice in a democracy is not just about punishing the guilty. It is about protecting the innocent and upholding the dignity of the most vulnerable, not just those convicted, but those neglected.
We must also ask: what message do we send when a man who murders a child can become a doctor, while a child from the same township cannot even dream of becoming a nurse?
To ActionSA, the answer is simple: dignity must not depend on incarceration.
The promise of Ubuntu, I am because we are, demands that every citizen, regardless of status, race, or geography, is accorded a life of dignity, utility access, and hope. That promise cannot stop at prison gates. It must reach the broken towns, the informal settlements, the rural schools, and the neglected wards of our nation.
If our nation can guarantee a warm bed and running water to a convicted murderer, then it can, and must, guarantee the same to the mother who mourns her child.
That is the only kind of justice we can call democratic. That is the only kind of justice ActionSA will fight for.
Convicted Criminals Receive Better Services Than Law-Abiding Citizens: A National Shame
It is a grotesque irony in our country that a convicted murderer can take the life of an innocent baby girl, be sentenced to prison, and still receive three meals a day, clean water, warm shelter, electricity, education, even train as a medical doctor. Meanwhile, the devastated family of that child often continues to live in poverty, without reliable access to clean water, safe housing, or functioning schools.
This stark disparity speaks to a moral and systemic failure. It is a failure that ActionSA has repeatedly raised: our government seems more committed to rehabilitating criminals than to serving the people who follow the law and uphold our democracy.
Inmates in South African prisons are guaranteed uninterrupted utilities, structured meals, healthcare services, and the right to education. Some prisoners have emerged with professional qualifications, while families outside, whose lives have been torn apart by these same individuals, continue to struggle without even basic services. This is not justice, it is inversion.
Contrast this with life in Mpumalanga’s forgotten communities:
And then imagine the same mother, grieving her child, knowing that the person who took her baby’s life sleeps more safely, eats more consistently, and learns more accessibly behind bars than her surviving children ever could. This is the bitter irony we must confront and reject.
Yes, our Constitution protects human dignity, for all. But that dignity must never come at the expense of law-abiding citizens. ActionSA strongly believes that dignity must begin with those who respect the law, not those who violate it.
When our state allocates more reliable services to inmates than to indigent households, something is deeply wrong. That is why ActionSA proposes the following:
This is not about vengeance, it’s about balance. Rehabilitation matters, yes. But how can we talk about rehabilitation in prisons while thousands of children grow up in communities where schools are collapsing, toilets are unsafe, and the tap hasn’t worked in years?
Justice in a democracy is not just about punishing the guilty. It is about protecting the innocent and upholding the dignity of the most vulnerable, not just those convicted, but those neglected.
We must also ask: what message do we send when a man who murders a child can become a doctor, while a child from the same township cannot even dream of becoming a nurse?
To ActionSA, the answer is simple: dignity must not depend on incarceration.
The promise of Ubuntu, I am because we are, demands that every citizen, regardless of status, race, or geography, is accorded a life of dignity, utility access, and hope. That promise cannot stop at prison gates. It must reach the broken towns, the informal settlements, the rural schools, and the neglected wards of our nation.
If our nation can guarantee a warm bed and running water to a convicted murderer, then it can, and must, guarantee the same to the mother who mourns her child.
That is the only kind of justice we can call democratic. That is the only kind of justice ActionSA will fight for.