We saw hell in prison - Bakgatla

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Tuesday November 9, 2010 00:00

 

Right from the first morning Kgafela, Mmusi and the other 11 surrendered to the police, after disappearing from the Village Magistrates Court and dodging remand for 24 hours, the men got to understand the existential situation of mortals in confinement. Sekai had remained behind when the rest fled from the Village Magistrates Court because he did not hear when he was told the rest were leaving. So he had some two days' experience already, and had resigned himself to serving the remainder of the 14 days.

'I believe our going to jail was a God-ordained mission, for it was while there that we saw some of the worst human rights violations we could never have known about had we not gone to jail.  It is not only the prisoners who suffer, but also the guards themselves,' said Kgafela, a human rights lawyer.

He would not go into details and left the task to his brother Mmusi and cousin Sekai.

'In jail there are some Bakgatla children who when they heard that Kgosi is coming started preparing for his arrival,' said Sekai. He did not mention that he, or some of his assistants or magosana, who are spread throughout Kgatleng, might have sent some of these people to jail.

'In jail when you arrive, you receive a heap of filthy light duty blankets - often lice infected. It is up to you to wash or use them as they are. If you wash them, you might have to ask to share with someone. But when the Bakgatla in the prison where we were got to know that the Kgosi was coming, they washed the dirty blankets and nicely packed them away for him,' said Sekai. The same lot also took turns to fetch food for the Kgosi. 'Kana ko kgolegelong le folla dijo.  [In jail you queue up for food] mme bone ba ne ba tseela Kgosi dijo [but they fetched food for the Kgosi]. Not that the food was anything special. On a particular day for instance, prisoners would receive a plateful of badly cooked papa and carelessly cooked spinach.

But we had no choice. We had to eat,' said Sekai.

Cell number three, which they occupied had 26 occupants. But the 26th person slept at the entrance because the cell was full. 'Re ne re robala mo ditonkaneng, mong'ame a robala mo ditonkaneng,' Sekai spit out the words in disgust.   

It was not so much the humiliation that they suffered from being caused to sleep on the light duty grey and brown blankets, nor from being 'escorted with guns like criminals' that worried Sekai, but the total disregard of botho or respect that some of the warders showed the monarchs. He narrated an incident that involved an ipod belonging to Kgafela.

'It happened that on one of the days, one of the guards saw as he was passing an ipod belonging to Kgosi Kgafela. Right in the middle of the night, the guards came. They lined us along the wall and shouted 'hands up on the wall!' - so you can see we were not given any special treatment by the guards,' he said.

Mmusi, who said he is still bitter about how they were treated in custody then took the podium. First he expressed his disappointment at the government for remanding the Kgosi instead of consulting with him, with a view to reaching a consensus or approaching the courts for interpretation.

'It was not an easy task sending us to jail. Even the government employees could not understand how they could be asked to jail the Kgosi,' he said. 'The roll call was at 5pm. Bedtime followed immediately. Sunset always found us locked in there. Then at 10pm the lights are put off. In the morning the roll call again. That was our life,' said Mmusi.

'We were at what used to be the Boys' Prison, then a privileged prison where the well behaved were sent and where suffering should not be as great as in the other prisons.

Many of the prisoners there talked about how they had to behave and be seen by prison staff as good boys in order that they be transferred there. They talked about being bitten by lice everyday,' he added.

He said one of the greatest injustice is that of prisoners held long after their due date of release. 'Some of the prisoners came to me with their records after learning that I am a lawyer. It was clear that some were wrongly convicted, while others were very clearly on the wrong. The saddest of the cases were those who should have long left but were still languishing in jail simply because the prison warders interpreted the judgement differently from what was delivered. When for example judgement had been delivered that said the sentence should run concurrently, the prison authorities may understand it to mean consecutively. Instead of approaching the courts for interpretation, they decide to keep the person. This is wrong,' said Mmusi.

He said it was disheartening to see as many as 26 people sharing a single toilet and a bathroom. 'How can you even begin to talk about hygiene?' he asked.

While the Dikgosi were remanded at the overcrowded but sanitarily better cell three at the Boys' Prison, the other co-defendants were taken to the infamous Maximum Prison. 'As we arrived, the men in the prison started ululating as they claimed that new 'women' were arriving - meaning us.

Immediately some of us were promised that we would get better food rations -especially meat, if we agreed to become the men's 'girls',' said a representative of the 11 Bakgatla men, Nthitane Segwai.

None of his men budged, but the eerie male ululations in the dark Maximum Security Prison unnerved some of them. 'There are two cells within that prison.

One is for those already convicted. The other is for those on remand. We were placed in the prison for those who have been convicted as it was 'cleaner' than the one for remands, so we were told,' said Segwai.

Altogether 18 men shared the cell with one toilet. 'One of us slept by the toilet. He could not sleep as he now and then had nightmares, which became worse whenever one of the prisoners who accosted us came to use the toilet.

He finally decided to sleep closer to the pin-hole from where you could ring the bell to call the guards,' he said. After such an ordeal, they definitely welcomed their release by the High Court last week.