Johannesburg - South Africa’s worst serial killer, Moses Sithole, has taken the government to task, accusing it of illegally transferring him to a Bloemfontein prison against his will.
The man, serving a jail term of 2 410 years for raping 40 women and killing 37 of them, has filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court, challenging his transfer to Mangaung prison from Sun City (Johannesburg Prison).
The 38th murder victim was the two-year-old son of one of the women he killed.
These crimes were committed in Atteridgeville, Boksburg and Cleveland between 1994 and 1995. Some of the bodies could not be identified.
In his court papers, Sithole, 48, argued that Correctional Services officials came to his cell at Sun City in August last year and, against his will, forcefully transferred him to Mangaung C-Max prison.
Sithole was initially incarcerated at the Pretoria C-Max prison, having stayed there from December 5, 1997.
He was transferred to the Zonderwater Maximum Medium A correctional centre in Cullinan on March 17 last year because of the closure of the Pretoria C-Max prison.
A month later, on April 21 last year, Sithole was transferred to the Johannesburg Maximum Medium C correctional centre in Joburg on his request.
But Sithole claims he was forcefully transferred to the Bloemfontein facility on August 17 last year without prior notice or reasons being given.
This, he claims, was affecting the “emotional and psychological bond” he had forged with a daughter who was just a few months old when he was arrested in 1995.
Sithole made a joint application with Erick Jhon Jungbluth Guerra, a maximum prison inmate serving a 15-year jail term.
It was not clear what Guerra was incarcerated for, but he indicated in court papers that he was transferred to the Bloemfontein facility from Joburg in September last year.
Like Sithole, he was also not given reasons, and efforts to source answers from prison authorities had fallen on deaf ears, he said.
“Upon their admission in the Mangaung Correctional Centre, Sithole and Guerra made enquiries to establish the motive behind the decision of Correctional Services to transfer them.
“The reason the applicants got from the supervisor in charge was that no prior reason was furnished.
“Thereafter, the applicants wrote letters [to] Correctional Services, where they highlighted the ramifications of the decision the transfer had on them as well as their family. However, no response came back,” the two men said.
Since their transfers, the two men have not had visits from any relatives as the 540km trip would cost a family member close to R3 000.
“The baleful nature of the decision of the respondents and its effects does not limit itself to cost factors alone.
“The decision has also impacted negatively on the social and psychological well-being of the family of the applicants,” the pair said.
The two argued that their families and friends were allowed contact with them while they were jailed in Pretoria and Joburg, but this ceased soon after they were transferred to Bloemfontein.
“The decision by Correctional Services to transfer Sithole and Guerra to the Mangaung Correctional Centre had literally marooned them from their kinfolks,” the court papers said.
Sithole and Guerra have supplied the high court with a section of the constitution and various Correctional Services manuals, saying all these documents supported the view that their incarceration in Bloemfontein was illegal.
Sithole received an HIV-positive diagnosis during his trial, but claimed that his health had since improved.
On Tuesday, he and Guerra arrived at the high court in leg irons before the matter was postponed to next month.
The Star