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While every attempt has been made
to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Special
Assignment or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims
arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic
fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording
unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility
of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying
individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
SECOND CHANCES
FENLEY: In 2002 Special Assignment
broadcast a video that exposed large- scale corruption in
Bloemfontein’s Grootvlei prison. It was secretly filmed by a
group of inmates. Tonight we take a look at what happened to
some of those prisoners, who’ve since been released. And we ask,
should prisoners be given a second chance once they’ve served
their sentences?
UPS: GAYTON MCKENZIE – Good
evening everybody. My name is Gayton McKenzie and just a little
background. I’m standing here and want to laugh because many
years ago I used to rob banks, I used to go and get the money
and today the money is bringing itself to me! I was in prison
for eight years of my life and walked out of prison and through
the help of many many friends that’s present here today I
managed to change my life, some people say that we wish all the
other prisoners can be like you, but you don’t understand I’m
not better than all the other ex prisoners, I just had better
people coming my way, I was just lucky.
UPS: - VOICER - Few would ever
have guessed one of Bloemfontein’s most notorious gangsters
would become one of the city’s most endearing personalities.
Gayton McKenzie has journeyed from a prison cell to the public
stage where he uses the stigma of prison to right the wrongs of
the past.
PRE-TITLE: SECOND CHANCES
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE; FORMER
PRISONER - Our house used to have steel bars, and my mother
never wanted me to go play outside and I couldn’t understand
that, and I asked her why should I be behind the bars, she’s
like it’s to protect you from the community not knowing that
twenty years down the line I’ll still be behind bars but this
time to protect the community from me. I remember the first
thing I stole in my life was a toffee apple and I went in there,
I remember it was an old lady’s shop, selling it, she put it
like upside down and I came in, but what I didn’t know was it
was fresh out of the oven or the toffee was a bit hot so I stole
the toffee apple and I popped it in my pocket I wanted to steal
two but this one was burning so hot, like you know against my
flesh and I walked out of that shop and it was burning and I
took it out and I can remember it still had the material of my
trouser on the toffee apple, and that was my first and I
justified it by saying well I paid more than the other people
look at my trouser and that was the first thing I stole. But it
becomes a habit.
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton grew up
poor in Heidedal, Bloemfontein. Equating prosperity with crime
his childhood dream was to become a gangster. The theft of the
toffee apple eventually evolved into more serious and violent
crimes, like bank robberies
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE; FORMER
PRISONER - We were the lowest, we were the scum of the earth. We
did wrong, where did we get money to dress so nicely, where did
we get money to buy cars? I remember when I bought my first car,
my mother was like wow what a nice car, my father came in looked
at me and said somebody else’s sweat, I’m sorry I’m not happy
for you and he walked.
UPS: - VOICER - In 1996 Gayton was
arrested. He spent the next eight years in Grootvlei Maximum
Security Prison in Bloemfontein. He became a member of the much
feared 26s gang running a drug cartel and bootlegging alcohol.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE; FORMER
PRISONER - I was a feared man, wardens feared me, prisoners
feared me until I saw the rape of a young boy. I was never the
victim I was the aggressor, and then one day I saw how a lot of
men violated a young boy in prison. They raped him, they beat
him, they violated him completely for the whole of nine hours
that evening the following day everybody walked past him because
he was laying on the floor naked in his own blood, and just when
I was about to pass this boy I realised this is not who I am, or
this is not who I want to be, I am better than this, this is not
who I want to be and that moment the first time in my life that
I did anything, I mean anything of any moral significance, I
picked that boy up and took him to the wardens at great risk to
my own life, and they laughed at me, they said there’s no proof,
I said I’ll show you all the proof in the world, the result the
Grootvlei expose.
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton and several
other inmates smuggled cameras into prison then secretly
video-taped crimes committed by warders and senior prison
officials. The tape was broadcast on Special Assignment in 2002
It showed corrupt authorities selling weapons and drugs to
inmates and proved warders had also been selling (jailed)
juveniles to prisoners for sex.
The prisoners had also sent the
footage to the President’s office and the Jali Commission of
Inquiry into prison corruption. Gayton and other inmates had to
testify and youths had to come forward about the abuses. In the
end, more than twenty warders were dismissed on charges of
corruption.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE; FORMER
PRISONER - oh we paid a hellava price, do you know after we made
this video we became the enemy number one, the wardens wanted to
kill us, the 26s wanted nothing to do with me, the other gangs
wanted to kill us everybody wanted to kill us I will always
respect those guys that bought into my plan with this video
because we had to sleep in shifts, two had to sleep, the other
two had to guard
UPS: - SAMUEL “SKOLLA” GROBELAAR,
GROOTVLEI EXPOSER – we slept in shifts because we couldn’t even
trust the warders who were guarding us day an dnight.
UPS: -GAYTON McKENZIE -you know I
had to wash like this, wash this side, and dry this side, so you
keep this eye open and wash this side and dry this side to keep
this eye open
UPS: - JAPIE SMITH; GROOTVELI
EXPOSER – It was difficult because when we walked past them
they’d say there go the sell outs who made the video.
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton, Sam and
Japie have since been released from prison. It’s clear the
former inmates formed strong ties with each other behind bars.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE; FORMER
PRISONER - He was AWB he hated black people.
UPS: - SAMUEL “SKOLLA” GROBELAAR,
GROOTVLEI EXPOSER – he hated white people, now I eat at your
table, your chicken everything, I want more man please!
AD BREAK1
UPS: - VOICER - To equip prisoners
to be self-sufficient on the outside, the Department of
Correctional Services offers inmates education and skills
training. Offenders are encouraged to take part in available
programs as part of their rehabilitation.
UPS: - NGCONDE BALFOUR, MINISTER
OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES - The system we come from is a system
that has showed us that you lock them away you throw away the
key it still doesn’t help, so the best approach we’ve taken as
Correctional Services is to make sure that through our
rehabilitation processes we give them a second chance to be
skilled and get all the kinds of education that we can give
them, not forgetting that they had committed some crimes against
society.
UPS: - VOICER - The Judicial
Inspectorate of Prisons says roughly sixty thousand inmates
who’ve served their sentences will be released from the
country’s two hundred and forty one prisons this year.
UPS: - JUDGE HANNES FAGAN,
INSPECTING JUDGE OF PRISONS - Remember before anybody is
released from prison, remember its already been evaluated and
checked by the authorities and of course if he’s been serving a
sentence he had to go before the parole board and the parole
boards these days have a majority of members of the public on it
so they’ve carefully evaluated, they don’t want people to make
re-offend once they go out
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - I’ve met the worst of prisoners, the worst of people
in prison with me and I’ve met the greatest of people with me in
jail, I’ve met people that I know that’s not criminals, they
didn’t pay their traffic fines, they went to jail, they didn’t
pay their licenses, they went to jail those guys are not
criminals, I met guys that made one mistake all prisoners are
not bad, but you do get the scum of the earth in prison
UPS: - NGCONDE BALFOUR, MINISTER
OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES - We’re not that naïve as the
Department to believe that everybody can be rehabilitated, we’re
not that naïve, there are those who are just beyond being
rehabilitated and we can’t do anything with them but we try,
ever since I’ve taken over this Department I’ve said all
programs must be compulsory to everybody so that nobody just
lies around the cell not doing anything.
UPS: - VOICER - Inmates may leave
prison with skills they may or may not be fully rehabilitated.
But everyone who walks out of a correctional facility carries
the stigma of a prison record. The odds seem to be automatically
stacked against them many struggle to find employment. Japie
Smit for one, hasn’t been able to find a stable job since his
release in December 2002. He tries to make an honest living by
doing odd jobs in his community in Heidedal.
UPS: - SAM GROBBELAAR, GROOTVLEI
EXPOSER – there comes a time when you must return. Then you need
people, people to help you, people to give you second chance so
you can prove yourself to them. They need not trust you. Not al
all. They have reason to mistrust you. I agree with that. But at
least be given a chance to prove yourself so you can win trust.
UPS: - JUDGE HANNES FAGAN,
INSPECTING JUDGE OF PRISONS - We need to receive them back in
the community, its because of faults in the community that they
end up in prison in the first place, very often, you know lack
of work, lack of sport, lack of entertainment, lack of parental
care, lack of love and affection, that type of thing, guidance,
so lets open our hearts to them again once they come out and try
and give them some of that to rehabilitate them.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - Because we feel our mistakes every day and you know
what all that a guy needs is a break, you just need a break and
you just need somebody to believe in you and you know what, what
hurts me is the fact that some prisoners do get a chance to
redeem themselves they do get it sometimes but then they fluff
their chance and they’re not only hurting themselves they’re
hurting other prisoners in the process
UPS: - VOICER – Thirty
one-year-old Bazil Duimpies also lives in Heidedal. He was
released from prison in July last year. Like so many others, he
couldn’t find work. He applied unsuccessfully for fifty
different jobs the returned to a life of crime. Bazil was
arrested in October last year for armed robbery involving
several million rand. He and nineteen others are now awaiting
trial.
UPS: - BAZIL DUIMPIES -I’ve really
tried to get a job, and it is true life push you to where you
find yourself doing crime because you have that needs like I
said the other day to my father I would go to a grocery shop or
something like that and do the smallest job just to get an
earning a honest earning, yes if that opportunity was there I’m
sure I would have been a better person now and a changed person
UPS: - IRMA LABUSCHAGNE, FORENSIC
CRIMINOLOGIST - Recidivism is simply the falling back into crime
after having served a sentence of imprisonment, nobody really
keeps exact figures about that, but we do all know South
Africa’s recidivism is one of the highest in the world, it goes
hand in hand with our problem of so much unemployment of course,
its not always because people are pure evil that they land back,
it’s because they have no other way out
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - I filled in more than two hundred forms for two
hundred different jobs and I couldn’t find a job and I met this
man who said he’s going to offer me a job I should come to his
house, he stays in Heuwelsig I was so excited and I came here
because I know I’m going to start a job because the guy already
said yes I came here stood by his gate and he chased me away. I
came to sit on this rock and I know I was praying for a
breakthrough you know I’m sitting here I’m thinking I was at my
lowest you know I was like is there no place for us ex prisoners
in this South Africa, what should I do because going back to
prison or doing a crime wasn’t an option.
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton’s watershed
moment soon came. A local recognized him as one of the Grootvlei
exposers and approached him at the rock wall.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - We started chatting and I told him who am I and he
told me who he was told me he’s a dentist and whatever told him
well we made jokes about it and I told him about my life and the
guy just kept on talking and I was just wishing for this guy to
go away.
UPS: -DR JOHANN MARAIS - And I
thought I must see this guy again, I took his phone number I
invited him to my house.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE - And
without knowing this guy after telling him about my life I could
see sincerity in his eyes and he said come to my house and I can
promise you I’ll not chase you away.
UPS: - DR JOHANN MARAIS - It was a
little bit scary in the beginning, my family doesn’t know the
guy and only knows that he was in prison for a long time, we
actually didn’t know exactly what kind of crime that he was in
prison for so but it went well
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - One of the things that this guy said to me that stuck
to me the reason why I can’t get a job is because you’re wearing
all star takkies you should look presentable not that there’s
something wrong with all star takkies but you can’t wear like
you wearing now go look for a job you must be wear like a suit
and I’m like that’s it I should wear a suit.
UPS: - CORNEL SNYMAN, BUSINESSMAN
- Well he walked in and one of my sales assistants asked him
what size are you so he says no where I come from one size fits
all so I said, I had to explain to him, I said Gayton here it
works in collar sizes or small medium large, extra large, and we
started fitting him out but half way through we sort of got side
tracked and we started chatting and we sat down and had a coffee
and he started me about just about how he started, from the
first thing he ever did wrong in life, I remember he stole a
toffee apple and it was years back, and I figured you know if
there’s anybody that I feel needs a chance it’s him.
UPS: - SHOP ASISTANT - Very
comfortable
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - Is it.
UPS: - SHOP ASISTANT - But we have
it in different colours.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - In my days I would have hide some tings in there but
ja.
UPS: - CORNEL SNYMAN - We packed
him some clothes together, got him a little wardrobe, a nice, a
few nice outfits and you know the next time I saw him was two
months later in a auditorium I don’t know how many thousand
people talking to thousands of kids and I said there we go
that’s the dream has become a reality.
UPS: - VOICER - Dr Ria de Villiers
is a well-known language specialist. She met Gayton through a
mutual friend, the dentist at the rock wall then taught him the
art of public speaking.
UPS: - DR RIA DE VILLIERS;
LANGUAGE SPECIALIST - I just thought to myself you know what, if
he just has an impact on one child or on one group of children
it will have been worthwhile and I must say Gayton did a lot to
calm everybody and to prove to everybody that he was not really
such a rotten apple
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton has
completed his journey from prisoner to public speaker. He now
works for a security company, as part of its corporate social
responsibility program.
UPS: - STEVE MUNDY, GROUP MANAGING
DIRECTOR, CHUBB - He regails people with his story which is
pretty brutal in some areas and also he tailors it to the to the
age of the audience, but some of the stories we’ve had coming
out of that have been phenomenal, of kids going up, offering him
their drugs and saying geez, I don’t want anything to do with
this anymore, to school grades going up and a real vibe around
the school cos he is a motivational speaker for sure.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - Your friends, your friends tell you smoke, you say
no, smoke, no, smoke man, no, alright just test it. Alright.
It’s nice nè, hehehehe! A person that tells you to smoke, a
person that tells you to do bad, that tells you to smoke, that
tells you to smoke is not a friend, he’s a fucking enemy!
AD BREAK 2
UPS: - VOICER - Some of the
hawkers helping run this fruit and vegetable store in Heidedal
are ex-prisoners. They’ve created work for themselves so as to
survive on the outside.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - If the community doesn’t give these guys a chance,
why don’t we just go in the prison and we shoot all prisoners
dead, what you gonna do with those three thousand people that’s
coming back we have to give them a chance.
UPS: - DR IRMA LABUSCHAGNE,
FORENSIC CRIMINOLOGIST - You’re not obliged to help but it would
be so good if we could open up our minds to this very real
problem and try to assist in a safe way.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - But what I believe in is that the onus is not on the
community to just go out and trust every Tom, Dick and Jabulani
but its to go out and look at this guy and the guy, the onus is
on the prisoner to say I’m worthy of your trust.
UPS: - DR IRMA LABUSCHAGNE,
FORENSIC CRIMINOLOGIST - I wish we could have a system in place
in the prison system in correctional services where employers
could contact, have a number where you could contact for a
reference, if I apply for a job the first thing I’m asked is
give me references.
UPS: - NGCONDE BALFOUR, MINISTER
OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES - I would suggest that the public does
that I would that they phone that center where the offender
comes from and ask for a file of that offender, we’ll gladly
oblige that.
UPS: - VOICER - The Minister
believes he should set an example to potential employers. That’s
why he’s hired Cindy Vollenhoven to work in his office. She’s an
ex-prisoner.
UPS: - NGCONDE BALFOUR, MINISTER
OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES - If I’m preaching a second chance, I
must walk the talk.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - I didn’t do it on my own I’d love to tell you I am
sitting where I am sitting now because of my intellectual
capacity, because of my connections, no I did it because every
person that met me along my journey of to become a human being
assisted me and I am the product of the kindness of people that
I didn’t knew before.
UPS: DR RIA DE VILLIERS; LANGUAGE
SPECIALIST - Gayton is now thinking up projects to help other
prisoners, our business is renovating a house, Gayton has
organized a whole team of workers and all these workers are
people on parole and he’s taken the responsibility of checking
them in, checking them out, um the foreman Japie is also one of,
an ex-prisoner, he’s extremely strict, they all know that
they’ll get a second chance but maybe not a third chance.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - My dream is to build the biggest drug rehab centre in
Africa in Heidedal where I’m coming from because I know it all
starts with drugs and I know my community, and although some of
them don’t want to admit it, it’s a drug haven. I will forever
give back, I will forever and ever give back
UPS: - VOICER - Gayton recently
got involved in a school leadership project. Matric pupils at
Eunice High wanted to make a difference in Heidedal so organized
a mini-Idols type concert there. Gayton helps show vulnerable
kids where he grew up that there is a way out.
UPS: - GAYTON McKENZIE, FORMER
PRISONER - The things that I did in the past want me to
contribute with three lifetimes of Gayton McKenzie, I’m
compelled to do it, for my conscience, for my shame and for
showing that if we’ve been given a chance we can.
SHOULD PRISONERS BE GIVEN A SECOND
CHANCE?
SMS “AGREE” OR “DISAGREE” TO 343
83
YOU CAN ALSO SMS THE WORD “truth”
PLUS YOUR COMMENTS.
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