Turmoil in jail over hunger strike

What started as a hunger strike by inmates at Baviaanspoort Correctional Centre has degenerated into a bizarre mess.

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Pretoria - What started as a hunger strike by inmates at Baviaanspoort Correctional Centre has degenerated into a bizarre mess of legal threats and claims that its instigators were being kept in solitary confinement.

At least 500 prisoners embarked on a hunger strike on Monday after they were not given supper and no explanation was given.

They included those on ARVs and diabetes sufferers, who should eat before taking their medication.

Prison authorities had to call the police to try to defuse the tension after inmates refused to heed calls for breakfast on Tuesday morning.

And yesterday, the prisoners contacted the Pretoria News, saying they wanted to reach out to the outside world in an effort to have their plight heard. They claimed that at least 16 of them, believed by authorities to be the instigators of the strike, were transferred to Zonderwater Correctional Centre.

Martin Herbst, who is doing time for fraud, was among the inmates who were transferred from their prison cells on Wednesday. Authorities apparently accused him of being the mastermind behind the strike.

He was further accused of providing the hungry and striking prisoners with food, his lawyer Julian Knight told the Pretoria News.

Knight denied that his client was one of the prisoners on hunger strike.

“Due to religious reasons Herbst does not eat prison food. He has his own food,” he said.

Herbst has been whisked off to Zonderwater, which is also near Cullinan, but he was apparently told by officials that he would be transferred to Barberton Correctional Facility in Mpumalanga.

Knight wrote a letter to Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha yesterday, demanding an undertaking that by noon on Friday, Herbst would be sent back to Baviaanspoort.

In addition, the minister should undertake that Herbst would not be transferred to Barberton or any other prison, he said in the letter.

He said there was no reason to move him to Barberton, while his family and support structures were in and around Pretoria.

Moving him, would mean that his family had to travel all the way to Mpumalanga to see him.

Knight will on Friday consult with Herbst about what exactly transpired, but he brushed off as absurd accusations that his client was involved in the hunger strike by feeding other prisoners from his rations.

Herbst’s fiancée, who did not want to be identified, said she was terribly worried and upset about the turn of events.

“They are accusing him of instigating the hunger strike and riots, but he is not a troublemaker.”

Herbst was earlier held at Zonderwater, but moved to Baviaanspoort after a run-in with the so-called Modimolle monster, Johan Kotze.

Spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo claimed the situation at the facility was back to normal, despite offenders saying otherwise last night.

Nxumalo refused to comment about reports of offenders being transferred to Zonderwater as a result of the strike.

“The transfer of offenders is a sensitive matter that cannot be divulged to the public.”

He also denied that any form of torture was meted out to the prisoners.

“We reiterate the fact that no act of violence and damage of state property was recorded at Baviaanspoort,” said Nxumalo.

Of the hunger strike, Nxumalo said as part of the routine catering services, inmates were served meals at intervals on Monday.

However, the supper served on that evening was without bread due to equipment failure from the local bakery supplier.

Some inmates refused breakfast on Tuesday, he said. He said a number of inmates started having meals as per the schedule and that operations at the bakery were also back to normal.

He said 33 inmates still on a hunger strike were engaged by the management and the impasse had been resolved, something denied by the prisoners.

Pretoria News