Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Lindiwe Ntshalintshali says correctional services were not just a departmental issue but a societal one as well. Photo: Sipho Siso

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Women serving time for various offences at the Johannesburg Correctional Centre have been thrown a lifeline for life after prison as they prepare for integration after release back into society and the communities they wronged. The Twinning Project, which is a Fifa Foundation initiative focussed on the rehabilitation of female offenders on the verge of being released after serving time for the crimes committed, twinned one of the most popular clubs in the country, Kaizer Chiefs, with female inmates to give them valuable skills in the sporting world which they can use to scrap a living upon their release. The 24 women who graduated from the project, plus two absentees, were taken through their paces on coaching skills, team management, kit preparation, marketing, and running a club or team as most of them have plans to open up women’s football teams back in their
communities to ensure girl children do not fall into the same crime trap as they did. One of the inmates due for release in August, Gugulethu Sharon Thwala, lauded the project for opening doors for female offers to enable their smooth re-integration back to their communities to play a positive and productive role in community building. “I have plans already to establish my own soccer team when I am released so I can pay back to the community I wronged. This also ensure that released former offenders do not fall back
to crime due to rejection in communities or failure to find a productive role to play,” Thwala, who comes from the small North West town of Brits. “When I leave Sun City [as the Johannesburg Correctional Centre is popularly known], I hope to have finalised my other ambition with department – that being an anti-crime ambassador in Brits and surrounds so I can spread the message that crime does not pay and ensure that both boys and girls stay on the straight and narrow,” Thwala (32) added. Another inmate also due for release soon, Cindy Holtzhausen (44), a mother of two children from Alberton, told Sipho Siso News, she was excited to be a free person once and hopes to fulfil her dream of opening a girls soccer academy as part of efforts to keep young girls off the streets and away from mischief such as drug abuse and the prevalence of teenage pregnancies. “I learnt so much about the game of football and I am so excited and can’t wait to share the skills I have learnt with young girls at the academy. I look forward to the challenges associated with the academy and I hope, through God’s grace, I will conquer whatever impediments lie ahead,” Holtzhausen said. Similar Fifa Twinning Projects have already been done with other clubs such as Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United.

Safa vice president Linda Zwane was on hand to witness the graduation of inmates from the Sun City Prison on the FIFA Twinning Project with Kaizer Chiefs. Photo: Sipho Siso