Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, has found the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services 100% liable for damages arising from the brutal assaults and torture on five inmates at the Leeuwkop Maximum Correctional Centre in Johannesburg north.
The five sued the department for torture by prison officials, as well as the fact that they were locked up in solitary confinement.
The group said that in August 2014 they sustained injuries at the hands of the officials while they were inmates at Leeuwkop.
They were brutally tortured, including being stripped naked and electrocuted underwater, they said.
They also alleged that they were forced to squat, defecate and do handstands for prolonged periods of time.
They said dogs were set upon them at one point, and they were instructed to lie down while an official walked on their necks and electrocuted their backs.
Four of the five inmates said they were unlawfully placed in solitary confinement, shackled, and left without any bedding or medical treatment for the injuries they sustained.
The officials denied any liability and said they did not torture the inmates. They used the necessary force to enable them to contain the inmates at the time as they (the officials) were under attack, they said.
But Judge Ellem Francis dismissed their defence as a “pack of lies”.
The judge said South Africa comes from a violent past, where many activists, and ordinary members of the public, were assaulted, tortured and killed during apartheid while they were in custody.
The authorities would cover up these atrocities, while some district surgeons would lie about the severity of the injuries. Fortunately, he said, there were human rights organisations and progressive members of the legal fraternity who took up these plights.
“With the dawn of democracy the hope was that these practices would cease. The plaintiffs’ case is that it has not ceased.
“The fact that they are convicted criminals does not prevent them to be treated like human beings. The fact that the perpetrators are high ranking officials does not give them the license to do as they please,” Judge Francis said.
The five – Llwellyn Smith, Xolani Zulu, Benson Qibi, Abel Phasha and Mtomokozisi Sithole – claimed damages for both the torture and the fact that they were kept in solitary confinement for 16 days.
The officials claimed that they had retaliated as they were under attack from the inmates in cell B1, who, among others, hurled faeces at them.
The judge said the evidence from the officials is riddled with material gaps and inconsistencies, with no coherent version about what happened in cell B1 or how the plaintiffs had sustained their injuries.
“The defendants’ version about an attack on the officials by the inmates was a thought-out version manufactured later to deal with the plaintiffs’ case of assault and torture,” the judge said. He noted that none of the inmates of cell B1 had been charged with assault or violent behaviour.
While the officials tried to downplay the severity of the inmates’ injuries and even called expert witnesses to corroborate their version, the judge said the severity of their injuries were confirmed by independent doctors.
A psychiatrist confirmed that they had also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and depression as a result of their torture by department’s officials.
The judge said it was shocking that some officials would gang up to come up with a version to mislead the court about what really happened at their facility.
“This is a typical case of mob justice that still plagues our country.”
The judge said it is rather sad that none of the officials and possible whistle-blowers who witnessed the attack came forward to testify.
The court did not deal with the amount of damages payable to the inmates.
This will be calculated at a different court hearing if the department did not beforehand settle the claims.
Pretoria News