"A lot happened in prison that was dehumanising. We were given our last proper meal of the day at 1pm, we slept on lice-infested mattresses and we had to be up at 2am to make sure we got to shower that day. But there were other difficulties - the ones that break you mentally."
Sbongile Mahlaba is one of 14 women who have just spent 60 days in prison after being charged with public violence during a service-delivery protest in Colenso, KwaZulu-Natal.
The prison conditions made them feel like "caged animals", she said, but their main grievance is that they were denied bail even though they were not a threat to society and had no previous convictions.
"I was out with my community peacefully protesting for what we rightfully saw as entitlements as citizens. In the process we didn't harm anyone or damage anything."
Magistrate PC Dyson said in his judgment that bail was denied because of previous protests in the area. "The investigating officer testified that at an earlier opportunity, 28 people were arrested and released on bail. According to him, the release of those was like putting fuel on a fire. He feels that the same situation will occur if these applicants are granted bail."
The judgment does state, however, that "none of the applicants were arrested and released on the earlier occasions when people were arrested for public violence".
Stanley Malematja, an attorney at the Right to Protest Project, said it was "astonishing" that the women were denied bail. "One cannot be punished for the wrongdoing of another, and bail denial should not be used as a punitive measure."
Malematja said the charge of public violence was a "tactic used by the state to stifle the right to protest" and that he found it "blood-chilling" that the women were denied bail. Dyson declined to comment.
The women's attorney, Ig van Rooyen, said the fact that it was the third recent protest in Colenso had worked against them.
Community member Slindokuhle Zikalala said: "The protest in which the women were arrested was a peaceful one. Nothing was destroyed, nothing was looted, not a single stone was thrown. The police came with grenades and rubber bullets and these were the women who could not run away fast enough."
This week the women were advised by a community leader to plead guilty so they could get out of prison. Zikalala said: "If they did not plead guilty in desperation they were going to remain in custody for much longer."
Lindelani Mahlaba, son of Sbongile, said: "A month before my mom was arrested, another man was kept in prison for 30 days and then the case against him was withdrawn.
"Another protest happened in which a tractor was set alight and a community member was shot dead. Twenty-eight people were arrested but were let out on bail. After that the community agreed that all protests would be peaceful, that they should not let things escalate. This protest where my mother and the other women were arrested was peaceful."
Uri Bram, a family friend of the Mahlabas, confirmed to the Sunday Times that he had lodged a complaint with the Magistrates Commission late on Friday. Mahomed Dawood, spokesperson for the commission, was not available to comment...