Swazi Media Commentary: Sidwashini

Showing posts with label Sidwashini. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Prisoners in Swaziland jail face beatings and humiliation from warders, former inmate reports

Prisoners in jails in Swaziland / eSwatini routinely face illegal beatings from warders and constant humiliations, according to testimony from a former inmate at Sidwashini Correctional Facility.

The 27-year-old, a prodemocracy activist charged with terrorism offences in the kingdom ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, reported being ‘beaten and tortured’.

He spent four years at Sidwashini, in the Swazi capital Mbabane, before a judge acquitted and discharged him in 2014.

The man’s experience was reported by Prison Insider, which publishes testimonials from people who have been or are currently in prison.

The former inmate who was not named said, ‘I shared a cell with about 35 to 40 other prisoners, it was packed beyond its capacity, overcrowded as is the case with prisons here. The only furniture in the cell were our thin sleeping mats and blankets, separated with only about 30-centimetre space between each of them. The windows in the cells were so high up, prisoners could only see the outside of the cell by climbing onto a support, for example several blankets piled up.’

In September 2018 Swaziland’s Correctional Services revealed that the total prison population in the kingdom was 3,453, which exceeded the prison system’s designed capacity by 615 inmates.

The former inmate said, ‘In Swaziland, untried prisoners are kept under lock 24 hours a day. We did not have the luxury of going out like the convicted prisoners. It was extremely mentally challenging to be locked up all day.’

He added, ‘You would find yourself at the verge of crying due to the very cold condition, only the fear of being embarrassed for shedding tears in public could hold you back.’

He said inmates were kept in unheated cells, even during freezing weather. Breakfast was thin maize porridge four times a week and bread with black tea three times a week.

Prisoners were counted by wardens three times a day. ‘The humiliating part about the counting was that we were forced to squat in rows of five.’

The former inmate said, ‘Some mornings were disrupted by random searches. This experience was humiliating, lots of verbal and sometimes physical assaults. I saw prison officers severely assault and humiliate fellow prisoners during night searches. They took the unlucky ones to the isolation cells, where they were beaten and exposed to further degrading treatment.’

The former inmate said, ‘Finally, when the judge acquitted and discharged me, I was elated. I shall always cherish the day I was released from prison. Those emotions and feelings are still fresh in my memory. I do not think they will ever fade away. I was freed from perpetual pain and humiliation.’

There have been other reports about poor conditions at Sidwashini. In December 2017 a suspect told a magistrate that inmates there were ‘frequently assaulted’.

The Swazi Observer reported at the time the suspect whom it only named as Masuku, ‘said he suffered bruises on his body due to the heavy beating he was subjected to by the officers’.

In January 2018 there were reports of disturbances in jails in Swaziland with inmates accused of brutality against warders. It was reported that new inmates had formed gangs and warders from jails across the kingdom had been moved to two institutions at Sidwashini and Bhalekane to increase security.

There were at least two incidents where inmates rioted because they were served with poor food. These were at Sidwashini and Bhalekane. At Sidwashini, media in Swaziland reported, untrained warders were sent in to help restore peace. At Bhalekane one warder had to be taken to hospital after an alleged attack.

In 2017 the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) stepped up investigations into prison conditions in Swaziland amid reports of inhumane conditions. They included food shortages, inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care.

In a wide-ranging questionnaire to the Swaziland Government the HRC 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 asks what plans Swaziland had to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In 2014 it was reported that more than 1,000 people were in jail in Swaziland because they were too poor to pay fines for offences such as traffic violations, theft by false pretences, malicious injury to property and fraud.

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

Saturday, 29 July 2017

PROBE INTO CORRUPTION AT SWAZI JAIL

Prison warders at a women’s jail in Swaziland were investigated after a newspaper alleged they were supplying alcohol to inmates.

It happened at Sidwashini Correctional Services where one unnamed senior officer was reportedly at the centre of the corruption. Senior officers from His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) have been investigating.

The Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland (23 July 2017) reported, ‘a night of alleged bingeing was discovered one morning due to a tell-tale stench of stale alcohol’. Junior officers at the jail spoke to the press about it and claimed a senior ranking officer was supplying the alcohol.

Officers and inmates at Sidwashini were questioned.

The Sunday Observer reported, ‘According to sources at the correctional facility, officers could not determine how long this had been going on.’

The newspaper quoted a junior officer saying, ‘It makes me sick to my stomach knowing how easy it is to break the law, and serves as reminder that I can easily swop my green uniform for the prisoner’s grey.’

Monday, 17 July 2017

‘WOMEN’S JAIL BOOZE COVER-UP’

A newspaper in Swaziland is alleging there has been a cover-up at a women’s jail where a senior officer has been illegally supplying alcohol.

It has been going on at Sidwashini for at least a month the Sunday Observer reported (16 July 2017). It said it had been, ‘kept under wraps by high ranking officers within the correctional facility.’

Unnamed junior officers interviewed by the newspaper said the drinking had been discovered after, ‘the tell-tale stench of stale alcohol gave the prisoners away resulting in a search for the person who allegedly brought it in’.

The newspaper reported, ‘The handful of female prisoners who are remanded in custody while awaiting trial are said to have been thoroughly searched and threatened with assault.’ The inmates named a prisoner.

The newspaper reported, ‘The prisoners further pointed a finger at a high ranking female officer who they alleged was instrumental in breaching security and bringing in the prized alcohol.

‘“Following the discovery that alcohol was freely available, we assumed that something would be done, but we are shocked that this matter was swept under the carpet,” a junior officer said.

‘Further alleging that money could have exchanged hands thus enabling the liquor to be brought into the institution, the officer said they suspected that more could have been spread around for the matter to be silenced the way it had.’

The newspaper added, ‘Concerning the alleged boozing incident, the junior officer said it was easy to take in prohibited substances as junior officers are usually stationed as gate keepers of the establishment.

‘“Would you thoroughly search your superior and question them on what they are taking in,” he asked rhetorically.’

The Sunday Observer reported, ‘the matter has been hushed so well that only junior officers are willing to talk about it, albeit in anonymity.

‘Several senior officers not connected to the alleged incident, but who were said to be privy to it, declined to comment stating that they would never talk about anything that would put their institution in bad light.’

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