Janusz Walus assault accused out of solitary — 18 months later

The man who allegedly attacked Janusz Walus in Kgosi Mampuru II prison in November 2022 has finally been released from solitary confinement.

Mandla Madonsela was transferred to Zonderwater prison in Cullinan last Thursday, his family said.

The transfer followed a report in the Sunday Times three weeks ago that  he had been held in isolation in the C-Max section of Kgosi Mampuru for 18 months after allegedly stabbing Walus, Chris Hani’s assassin.

Madonsela has never been charged in connection with the assault, which took place just days before Walus was due to walk free on parole. Walus spent a week in hospital before being released.

Madonsela, who is serving a life sentence for killing a superior officer at the Thaba Tshwane Military College in 2007, allegedly attacked Walus with garden shears as the inmates were waiting outside the dining area.

While Madonsela’s family confirmed the transfer, the department of correctional services said this week it was not permitted to discuss transfers. “We never discuss such matters publicly as they carry a security risk element,” spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said.

He declined to discuss any possible further action against Madonsela by the national prosecuting authority. “Internally, [the department] played its part by charging the inmate. We wouldn’t want to comment on what other parties acted upon or decided to do.”

Madonsela’s youngest son, Nkosinathi Madonsela, 26, said his father was “feeling alive” after his transfer.

“We have spoken to my father. He is healthy, excited and happy to be out of solitary confinement. He was taken to Zonderwater prison last Thursday. He is now in the general population of the prison.

“Our family is very grateful that he is in much more normal living conditions now. My father can now exercise and walk when every other inmate is allowed to be outside. Now they have to be in their cells for lock-up by about 4pm. This is far more humane than 24 hours locked up alone.”

Nkosinathi said family members now had easier access to him.

 “In C-Max it was often difficult to buy an inmate things like extra snacks and washing stuff. This will all be easier now.”

When the Sunday Times visited Madonsela three weeks ago, he said that being held in isolation was like torture.

“After the attack prison officials told me they would be keeping me in C-Max until the media attention calmed down and the psychiatrists had made a report about me,” he said.

“They said it should be for about six months. Those six months came and went, then another six months and then another. I have now been kept in solitary for more than 18 months, with no end in sight.

“I spend 23 hours a day in my cell, totally alone. I am allowed one shower every morning but the water is ice cold, regardless of the season. I have no access to news — no radio or TV or anything. I thirst to know what is happening in the outside world.”

At the time, correctional services said “standard protocol” at C-Max was that “the minimum time to be spent by an inmate is between 12 and 18 months before an assessment is conducted”.

“This is to determine if behavioural modification programmes have yielded any positive impact. An assessment report must be forwarded to the appropriate authority to make a decision.”

However Prof Lukas Muntingh, the director of the University of the Western Cape’s Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance & Human Rights, said he believes the prison authorities were breaking the rules.

“The UN’s standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners does not allow for indefinite or long solitary confinement. Prolonged solitary confinement is when the prisoner is held in solitary for more than 15 days without meaningful human interaction.

“The normal requirement is a criminal charge and then a disciplinary. Without those, this man’s incarceration is problematic.” 

Lawyer Julian Knight, who represented Walus in his various applications and court cases for parole, told the Sunday Times his client had not brought criminal charges.  “It is the responsibility of the department of correctional services to open cases when inmates are attacked,” he said.