As the groundbreaking case where the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services is being sued by over 200 plaintiffs for torture-related damages continues to unfold, more key witnesses are speaking out. The latest is revealing intimidation tactics through solitary confinement - just one more in a shamefully long list of cruel and unlawful methods.
While Simphiwe 'Tyson' Mbena sat in the Port Elizabeth High Court listening attentively to witness after witness describing the mass-beatings and torture he, and they, had endured at the hands of St Albans prison warders in 2005, no one would have guessed he had been held in solitary - or 'segregated confinement' as it's termed in SA today - in the single cells at St Albans prison for nearly six weeks. However, when his turn came to testify on Tuesday 10 June, he was unable to instruct his lawyers, who were forced to lodge an urgent application to end his segregation.
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