Sifiso Gcaba alleges are being killed at Ebongweni Maximum Correctional Centre. Picture: Khaya Ngwenya.
Durban - A former maximum security prison inmate says warders were killing prisoners and getting away with it.
Sifiso Gcaba, 32, who is out on parole, said he had promised other inmates – who are still serving time at Ebongweni Maximum Correctional Centre and Westville, where he had been jailed – that he would expose the “rot” that warders were getting away with.
Gcaba said he was locked up at Ebongweni, Kokstad, in 2017 after committing a string of house robberies. In 2019, he was moved to Westville.
This has still to be confirmed by the Department of Correctional Services. He said he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was released on parole last month. Gcaba has come forward following the death of inmate Mondli Khathi last month, which was reported in the Sunday Tribune.
While he did not know Khathi personally, Gcaba said he believed he was killed by warders. Khathi, 32, was allegedly beaten by warders at Westville Prison. He was taken to the intensive care unit at King Edward VIII Hospital where he died. Kathi’s death certificate shows he died of “unnatural causes”. His family opened a case of attempted murder at the Westville police station, but this has now been changed to murder.
LieutenantColonel Robert Netshiunde, provincial police spokesperson, said the case was changed when the victim died. “It was reported that the deceased, who was an inmate, was involved in a fight with another prisoner and was also allegedly assaulted by warders. The case is under investigation,” Netshiunde said. Gcaba said this was not the first time that warders had been implicated in the killing of inmates.
He said when prisoners fought, warders intervened by taking them outside and beating them up so badly that they either died immediately or in the hospital. “You would find two prisoners fighting, maybe the one stabs the other. The warders then take the one who has done the stabbing outside and beat them until he succumbs to their injuries,” said Gcaba, recalling an incident in 2018 in which he was involved, and almost died.
“Another prisoner, Gamalakhe Juda, and I were tied hands and feet and instructed to lie down on cold cement. It was extremely cold and we were like that for seven days. When they brought food, we would eat while on the floor like we were dogs. When they came back to check up on us, Juda had died,” alleged Gcaba.
He claimed that when Juda died, warders took him and hanged him, claiming he had killed himself. Gcaba alleged this was one of the methods warders used to kill prisoners. While Juda died, Gcaba said his injuries from having his hands and legs chained behind his back resulted in him being wheelchair-bound for nearly 18 months.
He said he was threatened by warders after opening a case of assault against them with the police for ill-treatment. “They wrote a false report that said I had slipped and fallen,” said Gcaba. He said another prisoner, Sicelo Tshamlambo was also killed in 2018 at Ebongweni Prison. “We were fighting for prisoners’ rights and the warders didn’t like it so they poisoned the food.
Sicelo died from poisoning,” said Gcaba. Tshamlambo’s mother, Lindiwe Cawe, 66, confirmed her son’s death. “Sicelo was not a perfect child, but he was my child. I was devastated when I was told he had died. It was all confusing. Apparently, they ate food that was not good. Others got sick, Sicelo died. His death certificate said he died of natural causes, which can’t be true” said Cawe.
She added that she had never really thought Tshamlambo was intentionally killed, although she had heard of such talk. “I’m an old person, what do I know about fighting any cases,” said Cawe. The provincial and national departments of Correctional Services were contacted for comment about the allegations two weeks ago. There was still no comment from them at the time of publication
SUNDAY TRIBUNE
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