'Prison was a death factory'

Justice Bekebeke spent two years on death row but escaped hanging by winning his appeal.

He says those who call for the return of the death penalty are hypocrites.

"How can they say they support the constitution, which is one of the finest in the world, but are calling for the return of the death penalty? Was capital punishment not abolished by the Constitution they support and exalt as the best?"

When Judge Jan Basson, in 1989, convicted Bekebeke and 13 others of the murder of a policeman their fate was sealed: death by hanging.

Initially, 26 people were arrested for the killing of the policeman in Upington, in November 1985. Fourteen were convicted of the murder and condemned to hang and the rest received lesser sentences. Bekebeke and his co-accused became known as the Upington 14.

The day he was sentenced, in the Kimberley High Court, Bekebeke told Basson: "In a country like South Africa I wonder how justice can really be applied. I used to think that, even as a black man, I had access to real justice. But I haven't found it.

"So, well, my lord, what I would like to ask is: Let's forget our racial hatred, let's apply justice for all humanity. We are striving for each and every racial group to live in harmony. Is it possible? Never say it is not. I hope, my lord, that you live to see the day of a free South Africa. I would like the Lord to give you many years so that one day you can see me walking on the streets of a free South Africa. And, my lord, may the Lord bless you, my lord!"

Basson, said Bekebeke, sentenced them to death despite a massive international outcry and a campaign for lesser sentences.

"We always had hope, even against all hope. There was a huge international campaign to save the Upington 14."

Of his time on death row, Bekebeke said: "There is no good memory, the place is horrible. Whether you were prepared or not [for death] you knew it was going to happen anyway. Each and every individual stayed in single cells and had 30 minutes' exercise daily.

"The problem with the death penalty is that the pain is not really restricted to the execution. In fact, the pain has nothing to do with the execution, but the life from when the sentence is pronounced to when the execution occurs.

"The prison itself was a death factory; its creators created it with the intention to kill.

"You sit there thinking about what happens at the point of death, the hereafter, your family, loved ones, children and girlfriend. That's the pain."

But in 1991, Bekebeke, who is now the director-general of the Northern Cape government, won his appeal.

"You kind of don't believe it and think somebody is pulling a prank on you."

WHAT UNNAMED WARDERS SAID

• "I was 18 years old when I was ordered to work my first execution. I tried to talk to the prisoner who was going to be executed. I think I said: 'Good morning' .

"I couldn't stop thinking about dying. I wanted to die. I felt so bad about myself ."

• "One guy from Natal said, 'I'm here to come and pay for what I've done, but I won't give a white man the satisfaction of killing me.' He hung himself . he tore a sheet to make a rope."
• "You were working with people who had nothing. Nothing to lose. Their lives were over. They belonged to the state. "
• "The worst part was that sometimes the sheriff would come in the morning and then again in the afternoon. You never become used to them calling 'baadjie en adres' [for the prisoner's clothes and an address to send them to]."
• "I can still hear that man's breath escaping from his mouth. It's like a soft breath coming from his body against his will. Sometimes when I sit at my house, I still hear that breath escaping."