Pals get R1m payout for prison horror

Durban - Two friends who were detained at Westville Prison’s awaiting-trial section for more than two months on baseless charges have been paid out almost R1 million for their exposure to “the horrors of prison”.

Their trauma included witnessing gang-related violence which ended with the decapitation of a prisoner, the head being left at the door and the headless body in the shower.

“The cell members were instructed by gang members (repeat offenders) to stay awake and sing the whole night. The horror of that image has not left my mind,” Gift Nkwanyana told a clinical psychologist who assisted in preparing his case against the ministers of justice and safety and security and the national director of public prosecutions.

Last year the respondents accepted liability for his unlawful arrest and incarceration and made a similar concession for his friend Kalmin Franks.

The men, represented by advocate Ryan Naidu, on Wednesday accepted a settlement of R450 000 each, plus interest and legal costs which was made an order of court by Durban High Court Judge Isaac Madondo.

In papers filed with the court, the two men explained how they were arrested in December 2011.

Franks, who was 24 at the time, said he had gone shopping for his birthday party when he was arrested by policemen from Bellair and charged with a robbery which allegedly happened the day before.

At the time, he insisted that video footage from a garage would corroborate his story of innocence. But he was taken to court, charged with a “schedule six offence”, denied bail and sent to Westville.

Nkwanyana, who was 33 at the time, said he was at his work’s Christmas party and had slept over in town, “which also could be easily verified”.

At Bellair he had been confused and resisted arrest and a colonel had put a gun against his head, threatening to kill him.

He was also denied bail and sent to Westville Prison. At another court appearance, his attorney, the prosecutor and the investigating officer said there was no case against him, but the magistrate refused to release him.

The two were kept in prison until March 6, 2012, when the case was dismissed because of lack of evidence.

In the psychologist’s report, Nkwanyana said being detained “made me lose my sanity” because he had witnessed extreme forms of violence which only drinking now helped him to forget.

“I had to sleep with one eye open... other inmates would urinate or put crushed glass in other people’s food. You had to be hyper-vigilant,” he said.

He recounted an incident a few days before New Year’s Eve when prisoners started stabbing each other, turning the cell “into a bloodbath”.

“I felt cursed,” he said.

The section was then locked down and no visitors were allowed until February. During this time his mother developed dementia “because she could no longer endure not knowing whether her only child was dead or alive”.

Nkwanyana said he feared death every second of each day.

Franks, in his report, recorded “stabbings almost every day”.

“I did not understand gang language, so I did not know what would trigger the fights. The warders would lock themselves out until the fight was over while the rest of the prisoners would hide.”

He said he had once witnessed a prisoner being raped next to him, “something you never forget”.

The psychologist found that both men still suffered from the after effects of their imprisonment and from post traumatic stress and sometimes struggled to cope with daily life.

The Mercury