Detention caused TB, ConCourt told

A man's detention was to blame for his contracting tuberculosis while in prison, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday.

“The cause is detention,” said Michael Donen SC, for Dudley Lee, who claims he contracted TB because of the negligence of prison authorities.

“He was in conditions of serious risk... in an overcrowded place with many people who had TB.”

Earlier this month, the Treatment Action Campaign, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, and the Wits Justice Project, all represented by Section 27, were granted permission to join the case as friends of the court.

The rights groups said the case held serious implications for human rights, public health, and the fight against TB in South Africa.

According to the groups, Lee was healthy when he was sentenced to serve time in Pollsmoor Prison in 2000 for crimes including fraud and money laundering. Three years later he was diagnosed with TB, and the following year he was acquitted and released.

Lee took the department of correctional services to the Western Cape High Court. It found the ministry was unable to show that prison authorities had taken any steps to prevent the spread of TB.

The department appealed against the ruling, and won in the Supreme Court of Appeal. The SCA found Lee could not prove that the minister caused his infection. The SCA had asked Lee to prove what was impossible to prove, the rights groups said.

Members of the groups gathered outside court in the morning, singing and dancing to highlight their cause. - Sapa