Today I drove to Big Bend Prison to see Thulani Maseko. Tagging along was Babe Musa Hlophe. We arrived shortly before the lunch hour. When we arrived at the gate we were instructed to park the car outside the gate after stating the name of the prisoner we were visiting. When we were being processed at the gate they asked us how we were related to Thulani, Musa said Thulani is his son in law. That information was unknown to me and I doubt if it is true. Musa also told the gatekeeper that we were all from KaLanga. We were given a paper which we were instructed to take along with us and hand over to the person that was going to open the green gate on which we were supposed to knock. We then slowly walked the plus 500 metres to the actual prison cells. Seeing the many cars that were parked around the entrance of the Prison we were wondering whether we were not being deliberately punished by being made to walk that long distance. After finishing the entrance formalities we were finally ushered in to meet with Thulani. Unlike the other prisoners who has one officer supervising the visit, we had four officers with us. One was taking down notes. Seeing as we did not know how much time we had there we decided to get into the real issues after the exchange of pleasantries. Sipho Gumedze who is in Washington DC had made things easy for us by posting the Hogan and Lovells interest in Thulani and Bheki’s matter. We also shared with him news of the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights campaign that has been launched as well as news of a yet unnamed important visitor coming in next week. Overall Thulani looks good and extremely calm and composed. At some point in time he had to comfort an emotional Hlophe advising him that if great men like Mandela had been through such a phase in their lives who was he to mourn. Hlophe tells him that he has every reason to be emotional because sitting before him in prison garb is an innocent man whereas the real criminals who are the ones who perpetuated this are being escorted in our national roads. Thulani is sure that both him and Bheki want to file an appeal which can hopefully be heard in November. However he is clear that he is not prepared to apply for bail if doing so will mean that the roll is manipulated such that he has to appear before Mpendulo for bail application which he knows would be denied. He thinks he looks good in that brown prison overall. When we asked him about conditions in prison, he informs us that generally he is well treated. He states though that just like in any prison there are wayward warders who think that prisoners have no rights stating that he has had to fight some battles. He thinks Big Bend is warmer than Mbabane weather wise. He is worried though about the heat come summer. He states that the work of every civil society activist out there should be to fight for and foster unity within the movement. He believes that he was moved to Big Bend because of the letter to Obama. For me this was a worthwhile visit. I want to urge to urge more of us to make that trip to Big Bend if only to assure Thulani that we value him and that everything within our powers is being done to ensure that their incarceration is not in vain. Those who cant make that long drive please visit Bheki at Sidwashini too. Do bring money for that occasional coke, phone card, cigarette etc
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:11:06 +0000
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