7/31/2019 I Got TB in Prison_CityPress_RuthHopkins

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RUTH HOPKINSnews@citypress.co.za

In a landmark case before the ConstitutionalCourtthis week,the departmentof correctionalservices conceded its prison tuberculosis pro-gramme wasn’t up to scratch.

Former Pollsmoor prisoner Dudley Lee, whocontracted the disease while awaiting trial

between1999and 2004,broughtthecase beforethe country’s highest court.

The department has argued in court that Lee(66) cannot prove he wouldn’t have contractedTBeven ifall theappropriatemeasureshadbeenin place.

TB is the main cause of death and illness inSouth Africa’s heavily overcrowded prisons.

After his release, Lee sued the minister fornegligencebeforetheWesternCapeHighCourt,which ruled that the department was liable fordamagesasit violateditsown healthregulationsandtheConstitutionbyfailingtoimplementef-fective measures.

TheSupremeCourtof Appealthenoverturnedthe decision.

Itconfirmedthe statewasnegligent, butruledthatLee could notprovewhereand howhe hadcontracted the disease and it was not clear hewould not have caught it anyway.

Thedepartment’slawyer,IsmailJamie SC,re-peated this argument before the Constitutional

Court on Tuesday.In 1999, Lee, a second-hand car and watch

dealer, was arrested with four others for fraud,counterfeiting and money laundering.

Ahead of the court case, Lee told City Pressother inmates had warned him about contract-ing TB, but he was never tested.

“Theylockyouupfor23.5hoursadayinadarkdampcell, withother inmatesin closeproximitycoughing their lungs up.”

HewasdiagnosedwithTBin 2003,andbribedhiswardersto take himto thedoctor. Heforkedoutmoremoneyforaccessto medicine. Hewascured, but his lungs remain permanently dam-aged.

In 2007,Parliament’s portfoliocommitteeoncorrections and the inspecting judge of prisonsdescribed conditions in Pollsmoor as a “ healthtime bomb”.

Incoming inmates, they found, were notscreened for TB.

Pollsmoor’s overcrowded cells, combinedwithpoorventilationandlack ofsunlight,madeit the perfect breeding ground for the disease.

Lee’s attorney, Jonathan Cohen, told CityPress:“Itwillbenefitallprisonersif (thedepart-ment) is forced to respect its own standards on

health and accommodation.”ThedepartmenttoldCityPressit was“notinapositionto commentonthemeritsanddemer-its” of the case.

In a statement, the department said it wasaware of the “unique nature” of the portfolio itmanaged and the “challenges that an overcon-centration of human beings in confined spacespresent”.

In its statement, the department said it was“working away at improving the living condi-tionsofinmatesanddoingitsbesttoensurepeo-ple are detained under humane conditions”.

Judgment was reserved.» Hopkins works for the Wits Justice Project, which was

admitted to this case as a friend of the court

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I got TB inprison, formerinmate tellscourt

ed for only 14% of the country’sUHNWIs at the end of last year.

WealthInsight found there were 75South African UHNWIs from thesegroups, and 543 UHNWIs in total.

“This is a relatively low percentageconsideringthatthese groupsmakeup90% of the national population,”

Amoils and his team reported.But this group is growing quickly –

mostly, researchers found, because of emerging BEE deals.

Other factors boosting the privatewealthof SouthAfrica’shigh rollersin-cluded the strong local property mar-ket and the comparatively good per-formance of the JSE all-share indexagainst other indices in dollar terms.

multimillionaires–with wealthofmorethan $30 million,” Amoils said.

Multimillionaires are referred to in WealthInsight’s lingo as UHNWIs: ul-tra-high-net-worth individuals.

“Wehavethe personaladdressesandwealth for these individuals, which weusetoworkout thewealthand numberof multimillionaires in each area,”

Amoils said.Thiswasusedto generate thereport

and a paper released last week, calledFar from Equal: Previously Disadvan-taged Wealth Trends in South Africa.

According to this, previously disad-vantagedgroups– definedin thestudyas black Africans, coloured people,IndiansandChinesepeople– account-

a swanky pad on the V&A Waterfront.These are some of the insights re-

vealed in a new study by British re-search house WealthInsight, titledSouth Africa – The Future of HNWIsto 2016: the Rise of African Wealth.

The “HNWI” is what WealthInsightcalls a high-net-worth individual – inlayman’s terms, someone whosewealthtotals$1millionormore,includ-ing equities, bonds, cash, real estateand business interests.

WealthInsight’s senior analyst andhead of its report team, Andrew

Amoils, said the company has a data- baseof morethan100 000millionairesworldwide– 600ofthemin SouthAfri-ca. “Most of the people on our list are

NATASHA JOSEPHnatasha.joseph@citypress.co.za

Meet the new South African multimil-lionaire.

He’s a black South African man, inhis mid-50s, and the secret to hiswealth is involvement in lucrativeBlackEconomic Empowermentdeals.

His biggest asset is real estate buthe’sgot plentyof ironsin thefire:equi-ties, cold hard cash, art, classic carsand private jets.

He probably lives in Sandhurst,South Africa’s wealthiest suburb or, if he prefers the Western Cape, he’s got

Face of SA’s ultra wealthy High-net-worth individuals’ wealth totals $1 million or more, including a range of assets

Other key findings:

» there are 80 women HNWIs in South

Africa – 15% of the total. This is below

the worldwide average of about 20%.

But, researchers say, the number of

über-rich women will rise steadily in the

next five years;

» the average age of a South African

HNWI is 56; and

» South Africa is setting the pace for

African HNWIs – we’re home to nearly

45 000 dollar millionaires.

Go gogo, goAn old woman from Umgungundlovu

district during the Golden Games for

the Elderly at Kings Park Athletics

Stadium in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, onFriday || PHOTO: KHAYA NGWENYA

‘‘In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of – Chinese philosopher Confucius