'How CT prison gang raped me'

2005-09-28 18:08

Cape Town - A Western Cape prisoner has described in an affidavit lodged in the Cape High Court how he was suffocated with a wet towel, while he was being raped and beaten by a prison gang.

The testimony of the prisoner, a former property developer, was a key element in an urgent application to force the government to improve conditions in South Africa's heavily overcrowded jails.

The application, which was to have been heard on Wednesday, but was instead postponed by consent to October 13, was being brought by the prisoner, who had asked that his identity not be revealed for fear of reprisals, and the Prison Care and Support Network (PCSN), an NGO under the auspices of the Catholic Church.

Constitutional right to dignity

They were asking the court to rule that prison overcrowding was unlawful and a violation of the constitutional right to dignity and the right not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.

In his affidavit, the 37-year-old prisoner said that after being sentenced for cheque fraud and escaping, he was held in Cape Town's Goodwood prison, in a communal cell dominated by members of the 26s and 28s gangs.

The cell was meant to hold 20 inmates, but as many as 30 at a time were packed in.

He said he was often approached by gang members to join or perform tasks for them, and was threatened when he refused.

Warders threaten inmates with the 28s

He said: "The 28s were powerful and even the warders would often threaten inmates with the suggestion that if they should step out of line they would be placed in cells with the 28 gang to be raped."

Tensions between him and the gangsters increased after a disagreement about television channels in the cell, but prison staff refused his request for transfer to a single cell.

"On Thursday August 28 2004, I went to the toilet early in the morning about 2:30. While I was sitting on the toilet, I noticed that a member of the 28s came into the toilet briefly and then left.

"He was a gang member who had previously threatened me and I had already made complaints to the warders about him."

Raped inmate couldn't defend himself

He added: "Shortly afterwards, a group of 28s came into the toilet. Before I had the time to stand up from the toilet, a wet towel was wrapped around my head and I was pulled off the toilet with my pants still around my knees.

"I could not see or breathe properly because of the towel, and I fell onto the floor. I was then repeatedly kicked and beaten on the toilet floor. I could not defend myself and I tried desperately to breathe through the towel.

"I then felt something being pushed into my rectum. I was in extreme pain and struggled to breathe. During the attack, I lost consciousness. I was found the next morning on the floor of the toilet. I was in extreme pain all over my body."

He was taken to the rape centre at Karl Bremer Hospital, and later received medication to prevent the development of Aids, for which he had so far tested negative.

- SAPA