By Buziwe Nocuze
- Cape Town parolees cleaned Vuyani Primary School’s garden and will plant vegetables as part of their community service work.
- Correctional Services urges communities to accept former prisoners to prevent them from returning to crime due to rejection.
Vuyani Primary School learners will soon enjoy fresh vegetables from their garden, thanks to parolees who rolled up their sleeves on Saturday.
The group cleaned the overgrown garden and will start planting various vegetables for the school.
Mkhanyisi Sphendu, communication manager at Correctional Services in Cape Town, said the parolees wanted to show remorse to the community.
“By doing this work we want to show communities that when someone comes out of jail, it doesn’t mean they cannot change. We would like to urge the communities to accept those who are coming out from jail,” said Sphendu.
When the community accepts former prisoners, it plays a huge role in their progress.
“When they see that they are not being accepted, they go back to committing crime where they will be accepted by people breaking the law. Some people end up thinking that the rehabilitation is not working because of the parolees who went back to crime; some do so because of rejection,” said Sphendu.
Correctional Services is asking communities to work with them to reintegrate former prisoners.
“When we arrived, the school garden needed a lot of work. Now that they have cleaned it, they will start farming vegetables so that the school kids can get fresh vegetables,” said Sphendu.
Nosisa Mda, a 45-year-old resident, was surprised to learn that parolees do community work.
“I am impressed by the work they did at the school. I didn’t think it was going to be clean the way it is after they finished working. We will work with Correctional Services in order to assist them in shaping the parolees’ future,” said Nosisa.
Pictured above: Parolees from Cape Town give back to the community by cleaning Vuyani Primary School’s garden; they will also plant different vegetables.
Image source: Buziwe Nocuze
