Officials from the KZN Department of Correctional Services
have rubbished claims by New Prison inmates that they get mouldy bread and
rotten food.
Inmates contacted Weekend Witness alleging they were
constantly sick because they were forced to eat rotten food.
“The bread we eat is rock hard and most of the time it’s not
buttered. Sometimes we are given bread with mould. People have opted not to eat
that bread anymore but those on medication have no other choice but to eat it
so they can take their meds,” said an inmate.
They also complained that there are no windows in their
cells and that the ventilation pipes are not working most of the time, “so it
gets very stuffy and becomes very easy for us to be infected with diseases”.
“Another problem we have is overcrowding. A cell [for] two
inmates houses five. The communal cells are even worse. At night you can’t even
go to the toilet because you have to step on other inmates sleeping all over
the floor,” said the inmate.
In response to an enquiry to the Correctional Services, Weekend Witness was invited to tour New
Prison on Friday escorted by regional managers and local warders. Responding to
the allegations by the inmates, head of correctional services at New Prison,
Zekhaya Zimema, said inmates themselves kept the bread until it was mouldy to
make home-brewed beer (umqombothi).
“During Christmas and the festive season, we allowed inmates
to receive food from their relatives outside.” He said the prisoners then kept
the bread the prison supplied hidden for brewing umqombothi. “The bread company
delivers here on a daily basis,” said Zimema.
A picture sent to Weekend Witness by an inmate shows stale bread. Inmates at New Prison claim they are forced to eat this.
In the kitchen some of the inmates were preparing to serve
lunch while others cooked their supper. The Correctional Services officials
tasted the food which included visibly fresh bread, phuthu, mash and gravy and
grilled pork bites. The reporter was also allowed to taste the food.
Mbuso Mchunu, regional co-ordinator for occupational health
and safety at Correctional Services, said there was an Infection Prevention and
Control Prevention programme where they randomly inspected different parts of
the facility to see if they adhered to the proper standards of hygiene, food handling,
cooking and how the food is stored.
“We were here on Wednesday to inspect ... We found there
were ventilation problems and addressed these,” said Mchunu.
Weekend Witness was also escorted to two cells in two
different sections to see that the ventilators were working well.
Sibusiso Manyoni, in charge of nutrition at New Prison, eats freshly-cooked phuthu which inmates claim is sometimes rotten.
The ventilators were working but the only windows in the
cells opened up to passages and the foyer area. The officials admitted that
sometimes the ventilators don’t work properly.
On the issue of overcrowding, Vusumuzi Ndlovu, acting
commissioner in the Pietermaritzburg management area, said this was a national
problem.
“New Prison has a capacity of 2 499 inmates but this morning
we have 4 131 inmates which means we are over 65% above ... capacity,” he said.
Ndlovu added that there is a new correctional centre due to
open next month in Estcourt but said inmates from all across the province would
be distributed equally to the new centre.
Inmates at New Prison gather in the foyer area outside the cells which they complain have no proper ventilation.
