A statement by the Prisons' Department on 15 August said that Mputhe Johannes Matsobane, 21, died on Robben Island in the prison hospital five days previously. The statement said it was at first thought that he died of natural causes but a medical report showed he died of "natural causes".
The Prisons' Department claimed that Matsobane had been returned to Robben Island recently after "treatment at a psychiatric hospital" and had since then been a patient in the prison hospital. Police are apparently conducting an investigation into his death.
Mputhele Matsobane, a high school student from Vereeniging, was sent to Robben Island in June to begin an eight-year sentence for sabotage. Shortly before his death Matsobane wrote to his family informing them that he was settling down to prison life and was in excellent health.
Concern over the conditions on Robben Island have been aroused by previous deaths and assaults on prisoners, in response to which the authorities arranged a well publicised and carefully controlled visit to the Island by 24 journalists in April last year.
