Walking the corridors of South African jails, one cant help but question what it is that compels governments to lock up its own people in such numbers!

Everyday, for the last 6 weeks I have been submerged in bright orange uniforms, behind high-rise concrete encircled in high voltage electronic fences.
But it’s an experience of a kind!!
One gets to meet people of all sorts!
There is for example a white young man may be 16 who was recently bugging the warders to transfer him to the communal section. Apparently, he had been there before until he was moved to a single cell.
The warders told him they wouldn’t do that again because he is a victim of violent behaviour from the big guys. The guy continued pestering the warders arguing that he was lonely!
But I later learnt the man is just missing out on the group orgies of sodomy.
The warders told him off in my presence, and he defiantly told them that the sex was the best he ever had!

I was showed some of the perpetrators and, heavens… they had to be! Men with scars, no teeth, and dirty who are serving sentences like rape.

Because it’s my second year, I am kind of getting used to these stories.

But used to what? The human stench emanating from bodies that seem to react with water like sodium.
Or faces of some of the most violent people in the country! Rapists, murders and hijackers etc.

Day-by-day so many people are finding themselves in South African jails due to various reasons.
But the most accessible of all is POVERTY!!!

South Africa perhaps like India has some of the best examples of extremes in the world!

India is a home to the world’s largest concentration of the poor, 350million living on less than a dollar per day! Yet, also some of the richest people in the world!

One in three of South Africa 37million lives in townships. Many are black and jobless.
Visit Alexandra Township just next to Africa’s richest city-Sandton and witness economic and social sinkholes.

The gap between the rich and poor is so wide that I don’t know there is a structural engineer who can build a bridge to close it!
But probably unlike India, South Africa is polarized based on racial quarters!
One reason why may be the gap is that big.

Many of the imamates are blacks probably 80%.
When I ask some warders, why it is so, they tell me its because of APARTHEID!
Others tell me because of POVERTY!

Of course, there is a correlation between the two! One seems to be the mother of the other!
But again why are they so violent???
What drives a man to kill for a cell phone or chase after the other and shoot him for accidentally stepping on his toes while dancing in a shebeen!

It is true that many come from dysfunctional families where there is hardly any social support! But in Africa, who doesn’t??
To some of us we actually look at it as rites of passage in life!!
Apart from a few on the continent who have been privileged to put on shoes and may be speaking the Queens’ language, to majority it still a dream!!

But why aren’t they all in prison? Is it a question of capacity?

I don’t want to sound insensitive, but ladies and gentlemen there is a spiraling blame on poverty getting out of hand.
Here in South Africa its worse!
Jails are over flowing with majority black people who it is blamed on poverty.

But one thing for sure is an average black South African is still far better off than any other black on the continent.
Blacks here are entitled to medical aid, social grants, have access to gov’t bursaries to a tune of R825 million, some with free electricity and water, best roads in the world.

A sick inmate here in South Africa feeds on a special kind of diet that many middle-income groups might never afford. It’s high in Protein with all sorts of fruits accompaniment.
Some it is believed keep going back to jail because of these benefits.
Recently on Talk Radio 702, there was a big storm stirred up by a right wing fellow who said that black people are predisposed to crime than any other race. He cited statistics in the US, UK and Australia to back his assertion.

Now, that’s such a generalised statement but might it hold some water??

While in juveniles’ prison recently, I went with some notes and an STI chart to use as teaching aids. To my dismay the kids stole almost everything.
Part of their loot was a small book on Obstetrics and Gyneacology and work I was doing on a project in Eastern Cape.
Now these have very complex information that even me I don’t really understand despite using them in learning about Reproductive Health. The guy I suspect had approached me earlier and wanted them-but he could hardly construct a sentence. I am told he had not even reached matric level (s.6) in studies.
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