special Prison Hearings 1997-07-21 THE FORT - JOHNNESBURG 1 MRS JEAN MIDDLETON https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=56360&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/special/prison/middleto.htm DR BORAINE MRS MIDDLETON DR BORAINE Thank you. MRS JEAN MIDDLETON (sworn states) DR BORAINE Thank you very much, please be seated. Mrs Seroke? MRS SEROKE Good day Jean. MRS MIDDLETON Good day. MRS SEROKE MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE Could you tell us about that trial and what you were charged with and so on. MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE Jean you mentioned that during the trial you were kept here in The Fort. MRS MIDDLETON Yes. MRS SEROKE MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE You also mentioned that you were fourteen people who were charged and that the men and the women were separated, how did you feel about being in the same movement, a Communist Party but when you go to trials and so on you are separated from the men? MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE You also say in your statement that you never had visits from lawyers and because Barbeton was so far, you thought perhaps there was a perception that the prisons for women were softer, more gentle and comfortable and yet in the same way you describe the harshness that was meted out to the Black prisoners, does it mean that your treatment was softer as against the Black women prisoners? MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE In the last paragraph of your statement you sort of compare Barbeton as ..., ... of the society, would you comment on that? MRS MIDDLETON MRS MIDDLETON Could you explain what ... is? MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE At least you had that in common with the Black prisoners. MRS MIDDLETON Yes we did. MRS SEROKE Lastly Jean, now that you are back at The Fort and we are told that very soon this place will be the seat of the Constitutional Court, what do you think about that for the future generation and for nation building? MRS MIDDLETON MRS SEROKE Thank you very much. MRS MIDDLETON Thank you, are there any other questions? Tom? MR MANTHATA Jean having heard that organising observation of ... you know shared and that story of a person being shot and it was said that they can easily explain it off by saying he was attempting to run away, did this ever give you a feeling that this observation or these things need to be either reported to the press or where possible, even report them to the members of the Communist Party to see what could be done? MRS MIDDLETON MR MANTHATA What used to happen in South Africa was, we would tell the stories to our lawyers and this is how the whole rallying up of the lawyers to come to the groups of lawyers for human rights emerged because talking to individuals or organisations sometimes was futile but once you relate these things to your defence it had an effect much as it would have taken time. MRS MIDDLETON I suppose so, yes. I did relate them quite a lot overseas as part of a campaign for the release of South African political prisoners. The campaign went on for a long time. MR MANTHATA When you went abroad, was it on an exit permit? MRS MIDDLETON MRS MIDDLETON Thank you. DR BORAINE Hugh Lewin? MR LEWIN MRS MIDDLETON MR LEWIN Can you put a time on it? MRS MIDDLETON I think Colonel Fred van Niekerk of the Special Branch once told the court that prisoners started showing evidence of disorientation, signs of disorientation within three days. MR LEWIN MRS MIDDLETON MR LEWIN Made up of civil society? MRS MIDDLETON Yes or something, I mean I have no ideas about that but certainly independent, certainly with the right to make reports public, certainly with the right to inspect prisons without much warning and to whom the prisoners could speak. MR LEWIN Under the old Prisons Act certainly, I think Judges always had the right to visit any prisons they wanted at any time, were you ever visited? MRS MIDDLETON Two former prisoners here have described the wheelbarrow torture and that was being used at Barbeton during the days of the heat exhaustion trial, those prisoners who fell dead had been pushing wheelbarrows full of gravel up steep slopes, you know there are machines to do that job and people could be trained in the use of machines in jail. We have to think about what we mean by rehabilitation and what the prisons are doing to achieve it, thank you. MR LEWIN Thanks Jean. DR BORAINE