The health and conditions of Thembka Harry GWALA (69) - a life prisoner suffering from creeping paralysis as a result of motor-neurone disease - have continued to deteriorate. He was transferred to Pietermaritzburg New Prison in July 1987. The campaign to release Gwala on humanitarian grounds has intensified and, under the co-ordination of the Release Mandela Committee (RMC), has gained support from various anti-apartheid organisations.
Gwala wrote to the head of Pietermaritzburg Prison and the Commissioner of Prisons in December 1987 detailing his conditions and demanding release. The prison authorities denied receiving the letters. Details were restated at a press conference given by the RMC in February this year: Gwala was medically neglected and isolated from other political prisoners; and he was dependent for care on two untrained prisoners, with whom he shared a single cell.
In response to renewed appeals from Gwala's lawyers, and recommendations from his prison doctors for his release, the Minister of Justice announced in July that Gwala was to be transferred to Durban 'to facilitate his medical treatment'.
