TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 7

Subsection 3

■ THE ORGANISATION OF THE HEARINGS

Themes

19 Despite these exclusions, the programme for the two-day hearing at the Fort was packed. The themes highlighted for the hearing were:

a the main political prisons: Robben Island (for blacks), Pretoria (for whites) and Barberton (for women);

b the treatment of women prisoners;

c capital punishment; d conditions in homeland prisons;

e health in prison;

f conditions in the ‘camps’ outside the country.

Witnesses at the hearings

20 Testimony was heard from twenty-five witnesses during the two-day hearing. Most witnesses had experienced prison first-hand, either personally or through their immediate families. In addition, evidence was heard from a number of specialists. These included Ms Paula McBride, a regular visitor to death row; Dr Judith van Heerden, an expert on prison health; Mr Benjamin Pogrund, the journalist most closely involved in the prison trials of the 1960s and 1970s, and Mr Golden Miles Bhudu of the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR).

21 Preliminary discussions were held between representatives of the Commission’s working group and the Department of Correctional Services, including meetings in Pretoria and Cape Town. Despite attempts to involve the Department, it eventually declined to participate in the hearing, although Warrant-Officer Steinberg, a warder who had served on death row, appeared in his individual capacity. The absence of the Department was unfortunate as it excluded the possibility of an official response to the testimonies and of an authoritative perspective on changes in prison policy during the years under review.