7/29/2019 Handicapped and waiting for trial - the story of Prisoner X by Carolyn Raphaely

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IAM A 50-year-old paraplegicand have been awaiting trialfor more than two years since

my arrest on fraud charges inDecember 2011. I cant walk, I cantcontrol my bowel or bladder and

have to wear disposable baby nap-pies which my family buy for me. Icant feel a thing from my waist

down. Im paralysed from Level 4and dont have a wheelchair.

If I use my sticks (crutches) I

have to pull my legs and throwthem to the front. Thats how Iwalk. I was shot in my spinal cord

which was cut in the middle duringa hijacking in the driveway of my

house three years before my arrest.Before I was transferred here I

was in Joburg prison where the

doctor prescribed a wheelchair forme. The doctor here says I must geta wheelchair from an outside hos-

pital, but hasnt referred me.

Living here is tough. We are88 men in this cell which is meant

for 32. Sometimes there are evenmore men. Twelve people sleep intwo bunks pushed together, thats

six on the top and six on the bot-tom.

I have my own bed on the bot-

tom which is a privilege.Luckily, I dont have to share be-

cause of my medical status.

There are eight or 10 peoplewith TB in this cell and four or fivewe know to be HIV-positive. A guy

with multidrug-resistant TB sleepsabove me.

I feel vulnerable all the time.

Not because Im threatened physi-cally but because Im always callednames and treated like an alien. Id

rather die than be here.I cant rely on other inmates for

help because they change all the

time. People come and go, so I haveto help myself.

My upper body is strong, so I

just pull my legs along the floor.Theres only one toilet and one

shower for this cell. Its so crowdedpeople even sleep on sponges onthe toilet floor.

Sometimes theres no water inthe toilet and it doesnt work. Thesmell and the flies are horrible.

The food in the kitchen is also cov-ered in flies.

Its a big mission for me to

get food. It takes 30 minutes to dragmy legs to the kitchen. Thats whyI dont have breakfast, I just drink

water. I only go to the kitchen oncea day for lunch which is at 11am.The warders in the kitchen wont

allow other prisoners to bring mefood, they say I have to fetch it my-self.

I cant get the right diet here.Prison food is not good for me or

anyone with special needs likemine. It gives me indigestion.

When I asked for special food

and complained about my diet, Iwas told the Department of Correc-tional Services had to get recom-

mendations from a dietician.Then I was told the prison

budget was R11 a prisoner a day

for three meals and that theycouldnt afford to give me what Ineed.

Awaiting-trial prisoners areonly allowed non-contact visitorsduring the week. You have to speak

to your family through a micro-phone from behind a glass and youget a maximum of 30 minutes.

My family can only visit at

weekends because of work com-mitment.

I made a special request for avisit last Saturday which wasgranted. It was the first time my

wife has visited me since 2011 be-cause its so expensive to come herefrom Joburg it cost her R1 500 for

transport and she also brought meR500 worth of food, nappies andmedicine.

The captain in charge said Iwasnt allowed food, onlynappies. When I complained, he cut

my visit short. I saw my wife forabout three minutes.

Theres no proper prison hospi-

tal here and prisoners die in thecells because they cant get medicalattention. When I had bad indiges-

tion and was s**tting blood, it tooka week for me to get to the prisonhospital. I havent been given any

medication since getting here noteven a Brufen.

I have to wash my pressure

wounds and sore s twice a day. Icant even get swabs or bandages.The last time I asked for Savlon, I

was told to wash my wounds withsalt water. Im in constant pain.Sleep is the only escape. Ive only

seen a doctor here once in Septem-ber last year and he prescribedmedical shoes for me. Im still wait-

ing.The prison hospital is worse

than the cells. The hospital is

just a normal cell with single bedsinstead of bunks. Its clean, has atiled floor and isnt as crowded as a

cell. Thats the only difference.Actually, my cell bed is better thana hospital bed.

If youre sick today, you mightsee a doctor next week. If you needa painkiller youll have to wait a

week till the doctor comes. Thenyou wont get medicine. Not be-

cause the doctor doesnt want togive you medicine, but becausethere isnt a ny.

My co-accused all got bail. Themain reason I never applied forbail was because I knew I couldnt

afford it.My family have managed to

raise some money now and Im

hoping for a hearing soon.Even my R1 400 disability grant

which I used for my seven-year-old

daughters schooling has stopped. Iasked a social worker here to helpme renew it but she said she could-

nt because I havent been sen-tenced yet.

The Independent Prison Visi-

tors of the Judicial Inspectorate docome here to take complaints butthen nothing happens. Some

warders try to help me but othersask me why I think Im so specialand require different treatment?

Living in these conditions meansIve been sentenced before I amsentenced.

DEPARTMENT of Correctional Serviceschief deputy commissioner for remanddetention Britta Rotman: We arebound by various sections of theconstitution and have very clearpolicies of our own regarding peoplewith disabilities.

Anyone coming into the systemwill be assessed and appropriatedecisions made. Every decision musttake into account the security anddignity of the person.

We have no control over where an

inmate will be sent. This is the decisionof the judicial officer and anassessment will be made in terms of theinmates needs and whataccommodation is available.

Each disability is treated uniquely.We have blind people who are placedwhere they can be assisted and alsopeople in wheelchairs. A judicial officialwill make the call and we will act onthe warrant.

She added that should his details bemade available the department would

investigate all allegations and assesswhether he qualifies for a referral onterms of section 49E of the CorrectionalServices Act.

Multidrug-resistant patients arealways kept separate from otherinmates. TB patients who are notinfectious may be kept in the generalpopulation but never XDR or MDR TBpatients when infectious. They are keptseparate even from hospital patientsand very strict rules apply regardingaccommodation, she said.

Handicapped and waiting fortrial the story of Prisoner X

Prisoner X is a paraplegic

remand detainee who, like

Oscar Pistorius and one third

of all South Africas prison

inmates, has not yet been

found guilty of crime. Despite

the presumption of innocence,

a cornerstone of the

constitution, the 46 000

remand, or awaiting trial

detainees, endure far worse

living conditions than

sentenced offenders. The story

is told to Carolyn Raphaely

AR, who is a member of the

Wits Justice Project which is

a body that investigates

miscarriages of justice. The

WJP is a project of the

Department of Journalism of

the University of the

Witwatersrand.

TWOYEARS OFWAITING:PrisonerX is a paraplegic. Hehas to use nappiesand crutches and isin constant painfrom pressure sores.He takes 30minutes to get tothe kitchen to fetchhis food, which hecan only manageonce a day.

SAMANTHA HARTSHORNE

THE DEPARTMENTof Education, inconjunction with LeadSA, is embark-ing on an ambitious awareness cam-

paign to educate 10.4 million childrenin all provinces on the dangers of rapeand to call on pupils to take a pledge at

8am on Friday, March 1.Basic Education Minister, Angie

Motshekga, said she issued a directive

to all provincial education depart-ments to instruct schools across thecountry to call assemblies at 8am on

March 1.The collective rage in the country

has to be turned into tangible action,

said Motshekga.The directive calls on principals to

address the school on the dangers of

rape and how to prevent and report it.An undertaking will then be made by

the pupils as they simultaneously re-cite a commitment to human rights.

We want to mobilise across the

school footprint and launch the pledgewhere the Bill of Responsibilities isadopted by all learners, said Panyaza

Lusufi, special adviser to the minister.The bill was formulated by LeadSA

and a number of religious leaders, and

has been adopted by the Department

of Basic Education in their life orien-tation classes. The pledge incorpo-

rates the basic tenants of the bill witha focus on mutual respect and individ-ual human rights.

The mass oath follows a nationaloutcry over Anene Booysens mutila-tion and subsequent death after she

was gang-raped.Lusufi said the department had an

official booklet on the subject of rape

that would be handed out, and theywould be engaging with non-govern-mental organisations to provide sup-

port at all schoo ls on Friday.He also said that other depart-

ments, like Health and the Depart-ment for Women, Children and Peoplewith Disabilities are also on board to

provide co-ordination.The department said they want to

create the channels, like booklets and

homework worksheets, that will pre-pare the children in the followingweek. The pledge will be available in

all 11 official languages.March is human rights month and

the schools intervention will tie in

well with the bill, said Yusuf Abram-

jee of LeadSA.He hopes the pledge the children

will take will be adopted by all SouthAfricans.

We want to open it up to the nation

take it to your offices, factories andhomes say no to rape, said Abram-jee.

The pledge will be available onwww.leadsa.co.za

Rape awareness drivecalls for pupils pledge

COMMENT FROM CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

He cannot walk and for two years he has had to share a cell meant for 32 with 87 others

MARIANNE MERTEN

Political Bureau

IF YOU live in KwaZulu-Natal, orGauteng, you are most likely to pickup the phone to call the presidential

hotline to complain about shoddy serv-ice, which usually relates to problemsat the departments of home affairs,

human settlements, labour and police.And nine out of ten times, the com-plaint gets resolved, unless it involves

the police where only three out of fourmatters are resolved, according to 2012statistics provided by the government.

This is a vast improvement fromthe situation three years ago. Sixmonths after the hotline was launched

in 2009, opposition parties visited thePretoria call centre, where PresidentJacob Zuma took the first call from a

widow from Eastern Cape who com-plained about a delay in her late hus-bands pension pay-out.

A statistical bun fight ensued overcall volumes versus logged cases andthe high number of dropped calls. A

technical team was put in place andthe resolution rate which stood at39 percent in 2009, improved.

By the end of last month, 154 549

cases had been logged and just undernine out of every ten calls had been re-solved, said Zuma.

The solutions have ranged from de-livering a wheelchair to Centani vil-lage near Butterworth in the Eastern

Cape to ensuring a mother could re-new two foster care grants after shewas told there were no renewal forms

available, and that a widow, whose de-ceased husband had a second wife,could access benefits after his death.

The machinery of the hotline isworking, said Mughivela Rambado,who is the director of the presidential

hotline and frontline service delivery.National departments seem to find

it easier to set things right than

provinces.As at September 2012 there were

still 5 363 unresolved cases, with Gaut-

eng clocking up 2565 and the EasternCape 3 123 unresolved matters as back-logs are being tackled.

But national departments steppedup their game in 2012: correctionalservices moved from resolving just 41

percent of complaints to over 95per-cent and public enterprises stood atjust short of 100 percent, up from

65 percent.

Statistics show presidentialhotline is making progress