Prison authorities have been given 24 hours to come up with an alternative for unsentenced girls in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, who are detained like animals in the sweltering heat of a “converted” storeroom and strip naked to survive the “tortuous conditions”.
As the country enters the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, their plight, brought to light in the annual report of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, angered MPs yesterday.
“You wouldn’t even house cattle in this place,” said Vincent Smith, chairman of the correctional services oversight committee, who told the department to report back on how it would remedy the situation within 24 hours.
“Today, as the country launches the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, we cannot have women being treated like this in our country,” said Smith.
The only relief the girls, aged 18 to 21, got from the heat – there were not enough windows – was by taking their clothes off. And even the shame of having others, including men, see them naked was outweighed by the need to survive the smothering temperatures of the storeroom in the tropical climate of Thohoyandou, said Smith.
“Let me know what your plan of action is within 24 hours, otherwise we will intervene at the highest level and take it to the minster to sort it out,” he told correctional services officials.
The portfolio committees of correctional services and public works held a joint sitting yesterday to listen to the two departments report back on issues raised by the committees.
They discussed fruitless and wasteful expenditure on the building of new facilities, as well as the “torture” of inmates who had died at the hands of prison officials.
In one incident, a number of officials were charged with culpable homicide when an inmate was killed during a “mass assault” on prisoners by officials, yet only one was found guilty. He was dismissed.
Charges against the others were withdrawn. The MPs wanted to know why they had not been charged with murder, and were told that the police would be investigating the criminal charge against the dismissed official.
They also queried the inhumane treatment of inmates who ended up killing themselves. In one case, an inmate was locked in a cell that had no lights and, in another, an inmate who alleged he had been raped was found hanged in the shower area of the cell.
There had been a delay in transferring him to a rape centre, allegedly because there was no transport available. The nurses who failed to examine the man were acquitted in a disciplinary hearing, and the officials who failed to arrange his transport to a rape centre were given a final warning.
The MPs were unhappy with the lack of action against errant prison officials.
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