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<<previous | index | next>> XIII. PRISONS IN THE "INDEPENDENT" HOMELANDSAn estimated 7.5 million South Africans live in the so-called independent homelands: Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda.127 Each of these "independent" states has its own prison system. We were able to visit prisons in Bophuthatswana (Rooigrond) and Transkei (Umtata Central and Wellington). Our requests to visit prisons in Ciskei were ignored (we did not ask to visit in Venda). Bophuthatswana, with an estimated population of 2.4 million, held an average of 2,217 prisoners during 1991 (the last year for which statistics were available), with a ratio significantly lower than that in South Africa generally, of ninety-two prisoners per 100,000.128 In Transkei, at the time of our February 1993 visit, there were 1,752 prisoners, according to the authorities. With an estimated population of 3.46 million, the ratio per 100,000 inhabitants stood at fifty.129 Prisons in these two homelands were similar to those in South Africa, and followed similar regimes, but tended to be in worse physical condition. At the time of our visits in Bophuthatswana, the system had just introduced beds for all its inmates, but not pillows and sheets. In Transkei, prisoners slept on mats. Overcrowding was a problem in both prison systems visited. In Transkei, overcrowding was particularly serious and conditions especially bad in the section of the men's prison that held those awaiting trial. The over-crowding was exacerbated and made more onerous for the prisoners by delays in the system: we received reports of pre-trial detention for periods as long as two and three years. Also in Transkei, we received repeated complaints about the food, including reports of rotten fish in the Central Prison. The Bophuthatswana prison system has a "privilege" classification system similar to that of South Africa proper. Inmates are classified in groups 1 through 5, with 5 having the most lenient regime. Inmates enter at level 2 and can advance one notch after six months. Under this system, depending on classification, inmates can receive between twenty-four and sixty visits per year, with the highest classification group allowed to have contact visits. Unlike in South Africa proper, the regulations provided for limits on the number of letters written and received by each classification. Prisoners could write between twenty-four and seventy-two letters; and receive between twelve and sixty letters a year. Groups 1 and 2 were not allowed to receive any periodicals, the remaining groups could receive up to two dailies, two magazines and two Sunday papers. In Transkei, South Africa's "privilege" system appears not to operate very efficiently, though it exists in theory. In the Umtata prisons, we received reports from prisoners of assaults carried out by prison staff, and of inadequate medical attention being given to prisoners who had been assaulted or who were sick for other reasons. A number of prisoners complained of asthma, which was aggravated by damp cells and dirty bedding. 127 As part of the system of "grand apartheid," South Africa created ten homelands, or bantustans, which were to form the sole focus of black political activity. In theory, all blacks would become citizens of a homeland created for their own ethnic group, and work in white South Africa only as migrant labor. Of the ten homelands, four C Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei C eventually became nominally independent, but the other six remained merely "self-governing territories," though there was little difference in practice. 128 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Prisons, Republic of Bophuthatswana, Mmabatho, Bophuthatswana 1991. 129 Population figures from Race Relations Survey 1991/92, South African Institute on Race Relations, Johannesburg, 1992, p. 2.
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