A former maximum security prison inmate Sifiso Gcaba, 32, who is out on parole, says warders were killing prisoners and getting away with it. He says another inmate Khathi, was allegedly beaten by warders at Westville Prison and later died in hospital.
“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. We would eat while on the floor… When they came back to check up on us, Juda had died,” alleged Gcaba.
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.
