IN the matter of prisons and prisoners, a sense of paralysis appears to have gripped the newcomers to government. All sorts of people were released as “political prisoners” while common law prisoners are given six month sentence reductions. We cannot accept this hypocrisy and injustice.
The public, the prisoners and their families are tiring of waiting in uncertainty that they are even been considered on both the issue of amnesties and sentence deductions and redressing serious and widespread human rights abuses in prisons.
We welcome PWV safety and security minister Jesse Duarte’s call for a commission of inquiry into prison conditions which are, as she put it, “appalling”. The whole prison system is corrupt, ineffective, inhuman and disgraceful.
Nepotism and blatant racism are still the order of the day. The command structures in South Africa prisons tell us inmates they are still waiting to be “ordered by headquarters” to adhere to the interim constitution. The fact that this has been the law of the land since April 27 is not relevant in prison.
We will not be forgotten. _ “Still in Prison”, Krugersdorp Prison