Ex-warder reveals secret dealings in prisons

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

In an interview with Mmegi yesterday Motukwa, who was in the dock on Monday with three others for the murder of his father Motlhankana in Ntlhantlhe in 2008, did what amounts to spilling the beans. After working for the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation as a warder from 2006 to 2008, he said that he has seen it all and people could be killed inside prisons.

But he says he experienced the worst when he was arrested for the murder in October 2008 serving almost two years at Lobatse prison. He went through hell until the time when he tasted freedom three weeks ago, he claims.

He revealed that there is plenty of smuggling of money, cellphones, drugs and dangerous weapons into prisons by warders who work with gangs inside.

He said that sometime last year, his former supervisor gave him cigarettes and dagga to sell inside prison but things turned nasty between them when he failed to pay the boss. He said that since he was a prisoner and a former warder, the senior trusted him and they agreed about payments. 'Inside prison there is a lot of money. If you have cigarettes and dagga, you are treated like a king, they wash your blankets, clothes and do everything for you. Even warders buy from prisoners and when you are a dealer they protect you,' he said.

Motukwa accuses one of the officers of smuggling a hack saw into one of the holding cells, thus aiding about four inmates to escape. Motukwa alleges that his druglord former supervisor, once mobilised a gang of his colleagues to beat him up for allegedly organising a prison escape. 'I was beaten hard for something I did not do and they knew it,' he claims. Now Motukwa is suing the Prisons Department, four warders and the Attorney General's Chambers for injuries caused to him by the warders. In the court papers filed before Justice Michael Leburu this week, Motukwa and Ryton Mlalazi are demanding P3 million from the state for the assault. He says that his life is at risk because of the injuries he suffered during the attack and he walks with the support of a stick.  He says that they went for six months without treatment as the warders did everything in their power to keep the doctors away from them. He claims that his backbone sustained serious injuries and there is a possibility he might never heal.

Further, Motukwa claims that the warders who assaulted them have hidden his medical records in a bid to kill his court case against them. He is representing himself.

He told Mmegi that the defendants have proposed an out of court settlement but offering very little. 'I am not taking anything less than P900, 000 and it is the court that will decide the outcome of the matter,' he says. Attempts to get a comment from the Attorney General's Chambers were futile at the time of going to press on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, the murder case against Motukwa, Daniel Sime, Gaolathe Thusang and Modise Sekai will continue on August 2-3 and the state intends to call 26 witnesses among them traditional doctors who implicated the first accused person.