Swazi Media Commentary: Ntshangase Isaiah

Showing posts with label Ntshangase Isaiah. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 February 2018

MAN TOO POOR TO PAY FINE SENT TO JAIL

A refugee in Swaziland was sent to jail because he was too poor to pay traffic fines.

The man, a Congolese, who is under asylum protection in the kingdom, was convicted of three offences including driving without a licence.

John Dambayi, aged 38, was fined E1,000 (US$86) by Siteki Senior Magistrate Donald Mavuso with the option of four months in jail. He could not afford the fine and went to jail.

According to a report in the Swazi Observer on Monday (26 February 2018), Dambayi told the court that he was a refugee who had no source of income as he was prohibited from engaging in employment.

It is not unusual in Swaziland where seven in ten people live in abject poverty with incomes less than US$2 per day for people to be sent to jail because they cannot afford the fine option.

In August 2014 it was reported that more than 1,000 people were in jail in Swaziland because they were too poor to pay fines. That was nearly three in ten of the entire prison population.

In Swaziland offenders are often given the option of jail time or paying a fine. Correctional Services Commissioner Isaiah Ntshangase said at the time there were people in jail because they could not pay fines for a range of matters, including traffic offences, theft by false pretences, malicious injury to property and fraud.

Figures revealed that 1,053 of 3,615 inmates in Swazi jails were there because they did not have the money to pay the fine option - 29.1 percent of the entire prison population.

Ntshangase said the numbers in prison because they could not pay fines was growing.

Friday, 5 January 2018

133 JAILED WITHOUT TRIAL FOR A YEAR

At least 133 people have been detained in Swaziland jails without trial for more than a year, the kingdom’s human rights commission reported.

That is the number of people who have reported their grievance, Executive Secretary of the Human Rights Commission Linda Nxumalo told the Sunday Observer (31 December 2017).

The Observer reported Nxumalo saying, ‘One of the key cases that the Commission has worked on [in 2017] was one dealing with the issue of access to justice especially for 133 inmates that have been detained for longer than 12 months without trial or sentencing at our already overcrowded correctional facilities.

‘After its investigations and understanding the bottlenecks, the Commission has been working with the relevant stakeholders within the Justice system to address some of the challenges unmasked by the investigations. Together with the Correctional Services, the Commission is still working on these cases to ensure that the clients eventually receive redress as soon as practicable.’

Nxumalo said the Commission was also working with relevant departments to ‘systematically address the challenges to ensure that the bottlenecks are addressed so that justice is not delayed’.

Swaziland’s prison system has been under scrutiny or many years by human rights observers.

Innocent children are jailed almost routinely in the kingdom because they are considered ‘unruly’ by parents or guardians, but have committed no crime.

A report submitted jointly to the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of Swaziland April-May 2016 by SOS-Swaziland, Super Buddies, Prison Fellowship and Luvatsi – Swaziland Youth Empowerment Organisation, gave the example of one child aged 11.

Their report stated, ‘There is a growing trend of child and youth abuse done by the state and the parents purportedly in “the best interests of the child”. Children and youths are illegally incarcerated in prison centres by parents in collaboration with the Commissioner of Correctional Services who claims that the children are unruly.

‘In one incident, Grace (not her real name) who is a single parent to John (not his real name) wrote a request letter to the Commissioner of Correctional Services requesting that John be incarcerated for unruly behaviour. In the letter, Grace states her concerns that eleven years old John might not finish school; hence her reason for wanting him incarcerated and attending the juvenile school at Malkerns Industrial School for Rehabilitation.

‘Responding to the same letter of request by Grace, the Commissioner of Correctional Services stated that under normal circumstances, they do not admit persons who have not been sentenced by the courts and directed therein through committal warrants.

‘However, the Commissioner agreed to rehabilitate John under the stated conditions; that the 11 years old John is institutionalised at the juvenile school for 10 years; there is an order from a presiding officer giving him a custodial order of ten years without remission; and that he will cooperate with His Majesty’s Correctional Services while under its care.

‘With that response, Grace [sic] the letter to a presiding officer who then wrote a custodial order for the stipulated time and John was admitted to the juvenile school in 2013. The 11 years old John lodges with other juveniles who have been charged by the court of law for various crimes they have committed. Grace pays tuition fees and up-keep fees for John, and she will continue doing so for the next ten years until 11 years old John is 21 years.

‘This case is one of many, and the children are of different ages and varying backgrounds. It is only recently that a joint task team comprising of UNICEF, Prison Fellowship Swaziland, Lawyers for Human Rights-Swaziland, Save the Children Swaziland working together with the department of home affairs are exploring means to curb this situation and probably provide solutions for both the parents and children.’

In 2012, the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland reported that Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase, Swaziland’s Correctional Services Commissioner, was encouraging parents to send their ‘unruly children’ to the facility if they thought they were badly behaved.

Ntshangase was speaking at the open day of the Juvenile Industrial School at the Mdutshane Correctional Institution. He told the newspaper, ‘Noticing the strife that parents go through when raising some of their children who are unruly, we decided to open our doors to assist them.’

The school not only corrected offenders but assisted, ‘in the fight against crime by rooting out elements from a tender age’, the newspaper reported him saying. The children, ‘will be locked up, rehabilitated and integrated back to society’, the Times reported.

In 2014 it was revealed more than 1,000 people - three in ten of the entire prison population -were in jail in Swaziland because they were too poor to pay fines.

In Swaziland offenders are often given the option of jail time or paying a fine. There were people in jail because they could not pay fines for a range of matters, including traffic offences, theft by false pretences, malicious injury to property and fraud.

Figures revealed that in Swaziland, where seven in ten people live in abject poverty with incomes less than US$2 per day, 1,053 of 3,615 inmates in Swazi jails were there because they did not have the money to pay the fine option. This was 29.1 percent of the entire prison population.

Correctional Services Commissioner Isaiah Ntshangase said the numbers in prison because they could not pay fines was growing.

In July 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) interrogated Swaziland which is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, on a number of prison-related human rights issues, including food shortages, inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care.

It also asked the Government to, ‘comment on the allegations that the president of the (outlawed) political party People’s United Democratic Movement of Swaziland, Mario Masuku, was denied access to adequate and independent medical care for complications relating to diabetes throughout the 14 months he spent in pretrial detention at Zakhele Remand centre and Matsapha Central Prison.’

The HRC also asked for detailed information about the number of existing prisons in the kingdom, prison capacity and the number of inmates and whether there were separate facilities for adults and children. It also asked what plans Swaziland had to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

1,000 PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR BEING POOR

More than 1,000 people are in jail in Swaziland because they are too poor to pay fines. That is nearly three in ten of the entire prison population.

In Swaziland offenders are often given the option of jail time or paying a fine. There are people in jail because they could not pay fines for a range of matters, including traffic offences, theft by false pretences, malicious injury to property and fraud.

Figures revealed recently show that in Swaziland, where seven in ten people live in abject poverty with incomes less than US$2 per day, 1,053 of 3,615 inmates in Swazi jails were there because they did not have the money to pay the fine option. This is 29.1 percent of the entire prison population.

Correctional Services Commissioner Isaiah Ntshangase said the numbers in prison because they could not pay fines was growing. He wants offenders to be given the option of paying fines in instalments, rather than going to jail.

‘The fact that the courts gave them the option of a fine means that they were not a threat to peace and security. Creating payment terms for those who fail to pay lump sum fines won’t harm anyone,’ the Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland reported Ntshangase saying.

He added, ‘Offenders who committed minor offences and qualified for fine but failed to pay should be given a further option of paying such fines in instalments.’

He said often offenders were required to pay the fine immediately of go to jail. They were not given time to raise the money.

‘Once an offender is convicted, his bargain power dwindles. This has caused many to rot behind bars yet they could have been released if they paid the fines,’ he said.

Ntshangase said keeping people out of prison would stop them being exposed to hardened criminals.

Saturday, 29 June 2013

JAIL OFFICERS ASSAULT KIDS FOR 5 HOURS

Children at the Malkerns Juvenile Industrial School were systematically assaulted for more than five hours by correctional service officers.

Some of the children were forced to strip naked for beatings by the officers who used belts, sneakers, open hands and feet to assault them all over their bodies.

The Swazi News newspaper reported that 15 officers were involved and more than two thirds of the 430 pupils at the school were assaulted from 8.30 am until after 2.00 pm, during a day last week.

One child interviewed by the newspaper said, ‘They were using belts, open hands and an All-Star (sneaker). We were ordered to strip naked before being assaulted all over the body, indiscriminately.’

The attack was also described by another as being worse than police torture known as ‘lishubhu’.

Another said, ‘Besi bulawa (we were being murdered).’

When asked why they were assaulted, one pupil responded, ‘Watsi lomunye thishela basi faka luvalo (one of the teachers told us that they were instilling fear).’

The pupils said they did not report the matter to the police because they feared being victimised.

Pupils at the school include juvenile offenders and children who live near nearby.

Correctional Services Commissioner Mzuthini Ntshangase told the newspaper, ‘Thina besicala ukube thusa (It was the first time we used corporal punishment).’ He said the officers only used a stick to deliver corporal punishment.

Monday, 3 December 2012

KIDS WHO COMMIT NO CRIME LOCKED UP

Children in Swaziland are being locked up in juvenile detention, even though they have committed no crime.

And, Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase, Swaziland’s Correctional Services Commissioner, is encouraging parents to send their ‘unruly children’ to the facility if they think they are badly behaved.

Ntshangase was speaking at the open day of the Juvenile Industrial School at the Mdutshane Correctional Institution. He told the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland, ‘Noticing the strife that parents go through when raising some of their children who are unruly, we decided to open our doors to assist them.’

The school not only corrected offenders but assisted ‘in the fight against crime by rooting out elements from a tender age’, the newspaper reported him saying. The children ‘will be locked up, rehabilitated and integrated back to society’, the Times reported.

The school accommodates pupils who were both in conflict with the law as well as delinquents, the Times said. There are presently 279 children locked up.

Although the newspaper did not say so, this means children who have committed no crime and have not been sentenced by the courts are locked up alongside criminals and treated as if they had broken the law.

The Times interviewed some of the inmates and found a 15-year-old girl locked up by her guardian because she had developed a relationship with a boyfriend that the guardian did not like.

Another girl interviewed was an orphan who ‘lived a town life’. She was reported saying, ‘In our dormitories which we share, we are deprived all the nice and good things.’

She added the rules at the institution were tough, ‘This place is not for the faint-hearted because you lose a lot of privileges that are freely accessible outside. There is neither clubbing, drinking nor time for boys.’

One unemployed father of an 11-year-old boy said he put his son in the facility because he did not have money to pay school fees. ‘I am grateful that my son is in school. I cannot afford his education because I am old. My wish is that he finishes school to earn a decent living,’ he said.

The guardian of one girl said before she was admitted at the school, she had not been able to contain her behaviour. ‘My biggest problem was that I had lost her. She dropped out of school together with my niece (sister’s daughter) who is an orphan,’ she said.

Children reported that they were not beaten but they were badly fed, getting their supper at around 3pm, which meant they went to bed hungry.

This is not the first time the Swazi juvenile correction facility has been under the spotlight.

In August 2010 it was revealed that a 12-year-old boy was serving one year in Mdutshane because he insulted his grandmother. He had been sentenced to an E300 fine (about US$40), but was too poor to pay so was jailed instead.

In April 2010 it was reported that a 10-year-old boy was serving ten years at the same correctional facility. Reporters were unable to discover what the boy had done to be locked up.

Friday, 13 August 2010

BOY, 12, JAILED FOR INSULTING GRANNY

A 12-year-old boy is serving one year in juvenile jail in Swaziland because he insulted his grandmother, it is revealed today (13 August 2010).

He is also locked up because he is poor.

But he is not the youngest Swazi child in prison in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. That dubious honour probably goes to a 10-year-old boy who is serving 10 years.

The case of the 12-year-old came to light yesterday when he was spotted by journalists during a Juvenile’s Family Day at the Mdutshane Correctional Facility, in Malkerns, Swaziland.

The Times of Swaziland reported that the boy, who it describes as an ‘inmate’, was convicted of insulting his grandmother. He was given a year’s sentence with the option of an E300 fine (about 40 US dollars).

The prison or fine option is common in Swaziland: people who can afford it pay the fine, the others go to jail.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was described by the Times as the ‘youngest convict’ in Swaziland, but this may not be true.

In April 2010 it was reported that a 10-year-old boy was serving ten years at the same correctional facility, sometimes known as Mdutshane Industrial School.

Commissioner of Correctional Services Isaiah Ntshangase said there were 183 youngsters at the facility. He would not confirm what the 10-year-old had done to be locked up, but the Swazi Observer said he hinted the boy had committed rape.

Ntshangase told the newspaper, ‘Some of the children we have are too young to be in prison.’

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