Free your mind through work

Hope for a fresh start and a strong sense of purpose permeates the walls of the central artisan workshops at the Windhoek prison in which nearly 100 inmates hone new skills to boost their opportunities once they step outside.Offenders classified as 'low risk' at the Windhoek facility can apply, and when approved, acquire training and skills in one of a number of workshops, including welding, motor mechanics, maintenance and electrical, woodwork and carpentry, upholstery and tailoring. Walking between the workshops, men are working on car engines, creating well-crafted furniture, sewing clothes and repairing electrical equipment, handcrafting wooden cabinets, beds, chairs, welding trailers and prison beds, among the many activities. A clear goal One man is working on a delicate set of wooden miniature houses, which he explains is on order for a school project. “It's better to come here every day and work, than just to sit in the cells,” Manfred Shukete (34) who is working on the tiny homes, told Namibian Sun. Before he was sentenced, his day job entailed working with wood, but he says the workshop has given him the chance to improve his skills, and could help him get a job or start his own business one day. He adds: “Many of the people here have not had any skills before, and it helps you to reintegrate better when you get out.”He says for many, it is a chance not to “go back to the old ways”.An offender who has worked for five years in the upholstery section, who declined to be named, says he feels joy and pride in “taking something old, and making it new again”.He says the work makes him forget where he is. “I don't feel punished, I feel a bit better about myself when I do this work.”He is set to be released later this year, after almost 13 years. The work has allowed him to feel confident about his future, and his reintegration into society.“If I can get some help to buy machinery, I want to start my own upholstery business. I am very good at this, and I don't want to ever suffer hunger again. When I first arrived here, I had no skills. Now I have learned so much. I won't go back to a life of crime; I feel I have been rehabilitated.”Soul food Kiewiet Plaaitjies (49), who applied for a spot in the panel beating and spray-painting section, says the work and the training help overcome the day to day humdrum of prison life, and addresses anxiety. “Because when you are busy, you stimulate your brain and you don't think about the other stress so much, on the issues you cannot resolve now.” He says the work, the acquiring of skills, the focus on daily tasks, are “healthy. It's soul food. All the divisions teach you not only to do this job on the outside, but it helps you to keep focused in here.”When I get out The inamtes who spoke to Namibian Sun agree that the work not only offers a reprieve from a day in their cells and an opportunity to learn new crafts, but allows them to plan for the future, despite knowing that society often harshly judges and stigmatises former inmates. “Society needs to accept that I have changed. I was still young when I came here. Now I have matured, and I know good and wrong. I have paid my dues and I plan to become a productive member of society,” Wilfred Siririka (43), who works in the mechanical division workshop.Siririka, who has been behind prison bars for ten years, and is set to be released in about two years, is also studying towards a law degree in his free time, which he hopes to pursue fulltime after prison. He worked for eight years as a literacy instructor while serving his time, but says he prefers the mechanics workshop for the new skills he is learning and being able to focus on a single task on his own. A fellow mechanic, Colin Ortner (35) is near the end of serving a 12-year sentence.He says while he grew up learning about car mechanics, working at the mechanics division has enabled him to fine-tune his skills and gave him the chance to obtain an artisan trade certificate. Ortner's sentence ends in February next year, and he is bursting with plans for his future, which involves opening his own mechanics workshop.“I am a changed man, and I will be leaving here with my own skills with which I can add contribute to society. Anything to do with cars, I can do it, I am good at it.”He is still married, and the father to three children and says their support “through the hard times”, and the opportunity given to him by the correctional services to improve his mechanic skills, is a source of gratitude.“I am not scared to go out. I am ready, and I am prepared.” Josaya Shigwedha (46), has spent almost ten years in prison, and is set to be released this year, began “from scratch” as a welder in the welding division six years ago.Through his training and work, he has obtained a qualification as a certified artisan, and already registered a CC for his future company. He often works on orders from the public and government offices, and says although he has a diploma in sales and marketing and an environmental management diploma from before his sentence, he wants to focus on welding when he finishes his time. “I enjoy this work. It not only gives you skills, but it's good to keep you busy, and your mind refreshed.”An unsure future Randy van Wyk (38) has been in prison for 18 years, after he was sentenced to 30 years when he was 20. Over the past seven years, he has become, according to one prison official, an expert carpenter, creating stunning pieces of furniture as well as being adept at fixing old, broken pieces.He is also praised and admired for his paintings, for which he developed a passion over the years. “I have been here for a long time. When I arrived, I had no skills at all.”In addition to the carpentry and painting, he also completed his Grade 10 and Grade 12 qualifications, and he hopes, with the support of family, to launch his own business when he leaves.He admits that he is apprehensive of leaving prison in 2020, when he expects to be paroled.“Prison has changed me. It has given me a new perspective on life, and I have accepted God into my life too. “The way I think has changed in here.”But, he says leaving prison will push him “into new and strange surroundings. I also wonder how people will respond to me.” Give a helping hand Deputy Commissioner Eveline January, spokesperson of the Namibia Correctional Service and a social worker, says in her view, the skills training at the workshop's offers inmates to develop new skills, which can ease their way back into society.“It keeps you busy, and it gives you a purpose to get up and to start and finish something. It equips you, and when they go out, they have a skill.”January underlined that it is crucial to understand that offenders are not the crime they committed, but are people with the same needs as the rest of society.“In my personal view, they are people, who have the same needs as the rest of us. “They need acceptance, respect, they need compassion. We all have the same needs as human beings.”January underlined that the NCS is responsible for the incarceration of inmates, and providing counselling programmes that support their reintegration before they are released. She noted however that a lack of support systems for former inmates after their release poses a risk and can challenge their efforts to re-join society. She says society can help by changing their mind-sets and giving former inmates a second chance, by helping with jobs, and supporting them in finding their feet again in the outside world. JANA-MARI SMITH

Free your mind through work

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-11

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Free your mind through work

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-11

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