Yvonne Theron

Vocational Instructor

Mangaung Correctional Centre, South Africa

For more than two decades, Yvonne Theron helped run prisons. She was very well qualified to do so, having worked her way through most departments, from reception and finance to case management.

But today you won’t find her sitting behind a desk in the administrative quarters of a prison. Instead, you need to look for her in the industrial workshop area of the G4S-run Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, South Africa – the second largest private prison in the world. And there you will find Yvonne teaching 40 maximum classification offenders the gentle art of candle making each day. Yvonne’s change of direction after more than 20 years illustrates the scope for career change at G4S, even within what many would regard as a rigid environment.

It also reminds us that Mangaung’s prime objective is the development and rehabilitation of offenders and their eventual integration into society. That is why its 2,928 offenders receive a full work week of doing purposeful activity, including educational and vocational skills-based programmes.

“I didn’t want to be stuck in an office,” she confesses. “In fact, I often visited the lady who ran the candle-making courses for offenders and I was so jealous.”

So, when this woman resigned and the post became vacant, Yvonne applied and got the job. That was six years ago and she is still a vocational instructor, specialising in making candles, and enjoying every moment.

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