05/02/2004 15:35 - (SA)

Pretoria - Penis size came under scrutiny on Thursday when the Jali Commission of Inquiry into prison maladministration probed claims by a former inmate that he was forced to perform oral sex on a warder through a window.

Joe Mokwana, for the accused warder Thokozane Nxumalo, told the commission it would have been an impossible feat for his client to get his penis through that particular window.

The narrow window started chest height off the ground, had a vertical bar in the middle, and the wall in which it was mounted was thicker than the organ was long.

"It would have been impossible," Mokwana told the commission.

This prompted evidence leader Graham Barlow to point out that "the male penis can go through a very small gap".

Mokwana added that the hallway in which Nxumalo is alleged to have been standing was normally very busy with warders walking to a fro.

But the alleged victim, Louis Karp, stuck to his story, saying he was forced to put his head in the window.

This was dismissed by Mokwana, who added that his client was in any event not on duty at the time Karp claimed the abuse took place.

'Sold' for sex

The commission, sitting in the Pretoria High Court, on Thursday started hearing cross-examination of Karp, a homosexual former inmate who claimed to have been raped and molested while jailed in 2001 and 2002.

Karp, who prefers to be called Louisa, spent one year and eight months in prison awaiting trial on a charge of possessing a stolen vehicle. He was eventually given a suspended five-year sentence.

Among other allegations, Karp said he was sold by Nxumalo in May 2001 to a group of four male prisoners who raped him regularly over a period of two months.

Mokwana also contested this evidence, saying his client was on leave on the day Karp claimed the "transaction" took place.

Several warders accused of wrongdoing by Karp took the chance to cross-question him - most of them claiming that the allegations were his way of getting back at them for trying to keep him in check while under their care.

Eugene de Kock

In the morning, Barlow told the commission that former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and Pretoria local prison head Nico Baloyi have been accused of fabricating evidence to discredit Karp.

It is alleged that Baloyi asked a prisoner to give false testimony. This prisoner, a former policeman, was allegedly helping prison warders draw up false statements for submission to the commission, Barlow said.

He added that De Kock, also an inmate of Pretoria Central Prison, had been implicated in this collusion.

Barlow declined to name the source of the allegations as he feared for that person's safety. But he indicated that the individual was prepared to testify before the commission.

"We will be pursuing this matter, because if the allegations are correct, it amounts to an attempt to side-track and derail the commission," Barlow said.