12/06/2003 08:33 - (SA)

Commission told how inmate played doctor

Inmates get a helping hand?

Leeuwkop prison sex scandal exposed!

Adriaan Basson , Beeld


Johannesburg - An inmate of Leeuwkop Maximum Security Prison near here "accidentally" broke the television in his cell. The next morning, he was found hanging lifeless from a rope in solitary confinement.

This came to light on Wednesday when Leeuwkop inmate David Nkuna testified before the Jali commission about mysterious deaths in solitary confinement.

Nkuna, who received the death penalty for murder in 1992, testified he knew of other cases of prisoners being taken to solitary and then apparently committing suicide.

"When I was taken off death row in 1999, I said: "Praise God! Little did I know I was heading for another hell.

"There is strong suspicion in the prison that these prisoners were murdered in solitary confinement and it was made to look like suicide," he said in a statement.

Nkuna also testified that the prison's case management committee (CMC), which conducts internal disciplinary hearings, was a "bush court", and prisoners were sent to solitary for no good reason.

Nkuna said prisoners in solitary also sometimes set themselves alight, and that senior officials seldom visited the cells.

Smoked dagga excessively

Nkuna said some warders were members of prison gangs, that warders and prisoners had sex while inmates were supposed to be exercising and that drugs, especially dagga and Mandrax, were freely available.

During cross-examination, Nkuna accused a warder of being "the most corrupt official Leeuwkop had ever had".

Nkuna accused him of smoking dagga in front of prisoners: "Sometimes, you smoke so much you have to wear sunglasses."

Nkuna also said a warder had asked him to "remove" a white warder from the prison by writing a letter accusing him of racism.

Nkuna said the warder was definitely not racist and would always help prisoners with problems without asking for money. The man has been transferred to another prison.