Prisons

BARBERTON 'HEAT EXHAUSTION' TRIAL: In the March-April 1983 issue of FOCUS (45 p. 7) it was reported that three black male long-term prisoners died at the Barberton Prison Farm on 29 December 1982 due to heat exhaustion. In the subsequent trial of eight warders who were charged with three counts of murder and 34 counts of assault, many details came to light of the brutal treatment meted out to convicts at the prison farm and a rare insight was given into conditions for black prisoners in South African prisons. The trial started in the Nelspruit Circuit Court on 17 August but the judge ordered the trial to be moved to the Witbank Circuit Court as 34 prisoners called as State witnesses refused to testify because of threats of assault by prison warders if they gave evidence against the accused. On the day of the deaths the eight warders, armed with firearms and rubber truncheons, marched 44 convicts to work on a dam on the prison farm. There the prisoners carted wheel-barrowes loaded with gravel in a temperature of 35°C while the warders beat them repeatedly with their truncheons. A prison medical officer who was sent along with the work gang told of how he had heard of a plot on the morning of 29 December 1982 to beat up the prisoners, who had arrived from Durban the previous day. The acting head of the prison had called for staff members 'who could swing batons' to 'make the convicts warm'. He said that this was an unusual procedure as work gangs were not normally sent out during the festive period and also that prisoners first had to be examined by the district surgeon to check whether they were physically fit before being sent out for such labour. The medical officer could not explain to the court why he was in attendance on that day but it appears that injuries were expected. Another witness said that it was unusual for a warrant-officer to be placed in charge of warders going out on a work party and for as many as eight warders to guard a gang of prisoners. The normal number was two. The medical officer admitted that he had never been trained in the treatment of heat illnesses and could not explain why he had not taken his medical bag to the site. He testified that he saw the prisoners being beaten up several times by warders when they did not run fast enough. A number of prisoners had collapsed and were lying down at a 'sort of field hospital' he had set up. He said that after a while the warders stopped hitting the prisoners so hard because they, the warders, were getting tired. A prisoner who testified told how one of the prisoners who had died had pleaded with the warders to stop the beatings and showed them operation marks on his stomach, whereupon they beat him on the marks. Another prisoner who ended up in hospital explained how he was visited by the accused warrant-officer who threatened 'to finish him off later'. On 12 September the proceedings were held up when two witnesses made claims that threats by warders had spread from the Barberton to the Witbank Prison where they were temporarily being held. One of the prisoners claimed he had been denied food for the whole weekend. He also said a warder had thrown 'a medicine' in his eyes while at Nelspruit which had caused him to go blind. Other witnesses told how warders used tricks to deceive prisoners at an identification parade, urging the prisoners to choose them rather than others. This was confirmed by a police officer who was present at the parade. Photographs taken during the parade were handed to the court and the judge commented that the warders were standing around 'without much discipline'. On 27 September the eight warders were cleared of the murder charges but six of them, four white and two African warders, were found guilty on various charges of assault. On 28 September the six were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year to eight years. The eight year sentence was given to the white warrant-officer in charge of the warders on the day the three prisoners were beaten to death. As a result of the incidents and exposures at Barberton, a high-level investigation has been launched into conditions at the prison complex. Since the three died last December, twelve more inmates have died violently. Four prisoners were shot dead in June in what was described as an escape attempt. Three prisoners died in August after what was officially described as a 'brawl'. Another prisoner died in August during an escape attempt and four more on 20 September during a 'battle with warders'.

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