Detained cyclist's prison hell

2003-05-23 10:16

Christi Naude

Durban - Former Springbok cyclist Neil Crosthwaite has been assaulted and constantly threatened in the eight months he has been in prison, his legal counsel said on Thursday in a second bail application hearing in Durban magistrate's court.

Advocate Christo van Schalkwyk, representing Crosthwaite who has been charged on 429 counts of corruption, requested that his client be transported in isolation as most of the assaults have taken place in the police truck from the Westville Prison on the way to the courts. "Today he was again assaulted and robbed."

Van Schalkwyk said Crosthwaite has been put in isolation at the prison due to a previous assault and constant threats he has received. However, there is no protection for him when he travels to the courts. The police, he said, say it is the prison's responsibility.

Magistrate Mervyn Maistry said that is defeating the object and advised the defence to write a formal letter to the prison authorities.

Speaking to The Natal Witness, the former national cycling coach said awaiting trial prisoners are piled in the back of police vehicles "like cattle".

"Sometimes we are 200 in one truck. I've been robbed of my watch, wallet, spending money and even been stripped of my shoes, socks, shirt and pants in the back of the van. There are no guards travelling in the back of the truck. The driver does not know what goes on behind his back."

Crosthwaite referred to Westville Prison as "that hell hole on the hill". Initially he was in a cell "two by two metres" with five other people. Now there are only two in his cell after the intervention of his attorneys.

"I've witnessed the worst - people next to me being sodomised and murdered. And even some [prison warders] assaulting prisoners," he said.

Crosthwaite says he has stopped reporting the incidents because he can't point out the culprits. "There are too many of them, and what will happen to you if you do point out one? I'm not a number [a member of a prison gang.]"

To walk to the reception area, he keeps at least R50 in change in his pocket as "protection money", he said. The jail food is something that he doesn't touch. "That bland pap alone is an assault," he said, adding that he only eats food that is brought in from the outside.

Westville official Thembi Ngcobo said awaiting trial prisoners are collected by the police. "Once they are in the van, the police are responsible. We only transport sentenced prisoners."

Crosthwaite's second bail hearing has been adjourned until June 19.

He has been accused of paying about R1m in bribes to Health Department officials to accept inflated quotes from his close corporations, Rippoux Trading cc, Brandfin Trade 100 CC trading as Mag Medical and Thembisile Medical Supplies. The companies allegedly benefited by about R13m from the transactions.

The first bail application was strongly opposed by the state, which argued that Crosthwaite is a "flight risk", as his French wife Magalie - also a suspect in the KZN Health Department scam - and their daughter allegedly skipped the country just before his arrest.

- The Witness