Marion Edmunds
Pretoria’s controversial high-security CMax prison was kept secret from key Department of Correctional Services officials until a week before it was put into operation for fear it might provoke protests.
Even correctional service’s head of prisons, chief deputy commissioner of functional services Timothy Khoza, had not heard about CMax until just before it opened. Khoza was national commissioner Khulekani Sitole’s deputy.
Khoza has now retired, although he was asked by Minister of Correctional Services Sipo Mzimela to stay on until next year. He refused to comment this week on his reasons for going early, saying only: “Some times there are things that people must not talk about.”
Mzimela is reported to have told the parliamentary portfolio committee last month that he could not risk discussing the project before implementation.
“If you think what you are doing is good, you act first and apologise later. The reason why we could not develop the mine- shaft prison idea was that we said it first. We learned from that,” he said.
The Black Sash’s Sheena Duncan has called for Mzimela’s sacking. “If this report about the minister is true, then he is totally unsuited for this or any other Cabinet post. Before he does any more damage in secret to human rights in this country, he must be removed.”
Neither Mzimela nor Sitole was available for comment this week.
In an earlier rebuttal of criticism, Mzimela boasted: “CMax – and, when they come into existence, the super-maximum prisons – are the best things that could happen in the criminal justice system at this stage. Our society and our prison systems are being brutalised by people who show no respect for other people’s lives or property.”
CMax, however, offers scant respect for the dignity and well-being of its inmates. The international organisation, Human Rights Watch, has written to Mzimela complaining that the solitary confinement imposed in CMax contravenes international human rights conventions.
CMax prisoners are kept for 23 hours out of 24 in solitary confinement, with only an hour per day out for exercise and a short shower. Mzimela has denied this is solitary confinement, and described it as “tight security”.
CMax prisoners are not allowed to smoke, shave with razors, watch television, talk or associate with other inmates or receive contact visits.
CMax, however, is becoming an embarrassment to the government. Local human-rights groups say they are outraged, not only at the conditions in the prison, but also at the lack of consultation with stakeholders before it was set up.
The Human Rights Commission has now visited the prison twice and remains dissatisfied with the way it is run, the criteria used to place prisoners in it and the philosophy behind it.
Commissioner Jody Kollapen said: “CMax serves as a tool of blackmail for prisoners who are not there, but I don’t see how CMax is going to assist in stopping escapes.”
Kollapen added that the commission had not yet decided whether to litigate against the prison. He said many prisoners had complained bitterly to him about the conditions under which they were kept, and could not understand why they were there. He said they claimed their complaints went unheeded. There is no formal appeal system for prisoners in CMax.
One of the 18 prisoners held in CMax, Andre Loubser, is serving an 11-year sentence for fraud. He tried to escape from prison last year, but does not believe his escape attempt justified the CMax treatment. He has briefed attorneys who are also considering court action.
“The intention behind CMax is basically to try and punish prisoners and to take away their rights. The intention is to keep them secure and to pretend to the public that correctional services is playing a part in lowering the crime rate,” said Jeremy Sarkin, a national executive committee member of the Human Rights Committee.
Former apartheid security cop Eugene de Kock is also battling to understand why he has been placed in CMax. Mzimela told parliamentarians it was for his own safety. His lawyer has denied this to be a valid reason.
CMax is meant to be a pilot project for four new high-security prisons, super- maximum prisons, which the department wants to build.
Correctional services representative Barry Eksteen confirmed this week that the department was briefed about the prison just seven days before it was put into operation two months ago. He said a select group of about 20 people had been in the know, but would not say who.
“There is nothing sinister about that. You can’t brief 30 000 staff members on every project,” he said.
Eksteen refused to disclose which advisers and senior officials Mzimela and Sithole relied on in developing CMax. Much of the inspiration reportedly came from maximum- security prisons in the United States.