Nathaniel Banda thought he had found the answer to the problem of poverty in his native Zambia. He became a link in a lucrative but illicit trade, smuggling imported vehicles from Durban in South Africa, up through Zimbabwe and Zambia, for sale in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And then, in 2005, he got caught in Zimbabwe.
He was sentenced to two years in Chikurubi maximum security prison near Harare - the same prison, and at the same period, that the alleged mercenary Simon Mann (pictured right, at the start of his jail term) and his confederates were serving their time.
"We saw them occasionally," he told me. "They were segregated into one cell on their own, because there were so many of them. But conditions for them were just the same as for us. And I can tell you 
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Simon Mann’s fellow convict Nathaniel Banda tells hugh russell about the hellish conditions in Chikurubi prison |
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that during that time six whites died. Probably cholera, or dysentery.
"We all had dysentery at some time or other. Food was terrible, and it wasn't properly cooked. Mostly kapenta (tiny dry fish) in salt water. And mealies, the sort they make for dogs. If you had food sent in from outside, like the whites did, it was usually grabbed by the warders.
"They kept the whites under heavy guard all the time. I used to see Mann when he was taken for a court hearing, or he had a visitor. He would always be manacled, hands and legs. They were scared he would escape somehow."
Nathaniel said the cells were meant for 15 people, but housed as many as 40. "There is a toilet in the middle. Each cell has a leader, and you cannot use the toilet until you get the okay from the leader. There's never enough water for the toilet, and the thing crawls with maggots. |
