7/28/2019 Minister taken to court for brutality in SA jails_Carolyn Raphaely

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8 NEWS FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 2012 The Star

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CAROLYN RAPHAELY

WHILE allegations ofpolice brutality,

assault and tortureare being heard by the FarlamCommission in Rustenburg,

late last month Wandile Tozi,an inmate at the St Albans Cor-rectional Centre, brought an

urgent application to end hisown assault.

Tozi, in the Port Elizabeth

High Court, is taking on theMinister of Correctional Ser-vices Sbu Ndebele and the

head of Port ElizabethsSt Albans Prison in order to

compel prison warders to stopassaulting him, and to ensurethat he received medical atten-

tion for his injuries.Tozi, 31, is also the 209th

plaintiff in what is probably

the largest damages claim everinstituted against the ministerof Correctional Services by 231

inmates and former St Albansinmates. This was after aprison-wide orgy of violence,

assaults and beatings that took

place there in 2005. The mattershould be heard next year.

Now Tozi is institutinganother damages claim againstthe minister relating to a sec-

ond spate of assaults and beat-ings by St Albans warders thatoccurred late last month.

Tozis second damagesclaim is being instituted at atime when annexures to the

departments 2011/12 latestbudget report reveal contin-gent liabilities of R1.3billion

set aside for legal claims including nearly R1bn for bod-ily injury and assault for the

year ending March 2012.Assaults on inmates do not

appear to be limited to those in

the custody of the department.Independent Police Inves-

tigative Directorate (Ipid)

spokesman Moses Dlaminisays 194 charges of assault and

beatings were laid against thepolice by survivors of the

Marikana massacre who wereheld at Phokeng, Mogase andJericho police stations.

Torture appears increas-ingly to be a reality of SouthAfrican prison life. The most

recent 2011/12 Judicial Inspec-torate for Correctional Ser-

vices (JICS) report records thatit received 71 complaints of

assault on inmates by officialsthat may qualify as torture.

JICSs independent correc-

tional centre visitors alsoreceived 1 945 complaints ofmember-on-inmate assaults.

Tozis legal representative,Egon Oswald, says Tozi was

assaulted and beaten after a

dispute with a warder at theSt Albans Medium B Correc-

tional facility over the confisca-tion of money.

Warders dragged him

awayin front of a number ofhis cellmates who had toendure his screams as he was

viciously beaten in a nearbyoffice, Oswald said.

Fearing for his life after

seeing Tozis naked bleedingbody being dragged away fromthe office by warders, other

inmates raised the alarm.Following Tozis assault, he

was repeatedly denied access to

Oswald, who was forced tobring an application to the highcourt to gain access to his

client and to seek permissionto photograph Tozis injuries.

In 2010 Oswald became the

first South Africanattorney tosuccessfully prosecute SouthAfrica for human rights viola-

tions at the UN Human RightsCommittee (UNHRC).

Having exhausted all

domestic remedies, Bradley

McCallum, a former St Albansinmate tortured by warders

along with 70 cellmates, soughtrelief from the UNHRC.

South Africa ignored five

requests by the UNHRC torespond to theallegations.

Subsequently South Africa

was instructed by the UNHRCto investigate the claims, pros-ecute those responsible and

provide a remedy and informa-tion about measures taken in180 days and to criminalise tor-

ture in its domestic legislation.To date, no investigation has

been concluded, some of the

warders implicated in the beat-ings remain in their jobs andtorture is still not a crime in

South Africa.

Carolyn Raphaely is a mem-ber of the Wits Justice Project

that investigates miscarriagesof justice

Minister taken to courtfor brutality in SA jailsPrisoner takes legal action in order to stop assaults and receive care for injuries

STAND: WandileTozi has takenlegal action in thePort ElizabethHigh Court inorder to compelprison warders tostop assaultinghim, and toensure hereceives medicalattention for hisinjuries.

LONDON: Taking aspirin cutsthe risk of certain cancers bymore than 40 percent even

when taken only every otherday, accor ding to a study.

Researchers have found that

even a low dose of the pain-killer reduces the odds ofbowel and stomach cancers.

Women who took one 100mg

tablet every other day were43 percent less likely to getbowel cancer and 36 percent

less at risk of stomach cancer,after a 20 years.

Studies have shown that a

daily dose of aspirin cuts therisk of developing cancer, andof tumours spreading.

But until now, it was not

known whether the pills hadsimilar preventive effects whentaken less frequently.

Researchers from HarvardUniversity and Brigham andWomens Hospital in Boston,

the US, looked at the records of39 876 women over 45.

Half were told to take one

100mg aspirin tablet every

other day while the remainderwere given a placebo.

After 18 years researchers

compared how many womenfrom each group had developedcancer and found the odds of

developing bowel or stomachcancer among those on aspirinwere significantly lower.

Daily Mail

Study finds aspirin can lower risk of cancer