SA jail was hell for US tourist

An American tourist who said he was robbed of all his possessions at gunpoint, landed up destitute living on the mountains above Simon's Town for a year before being locked up with notorious gangsters in grossly overcrowded Pollsmoor Prison.

Lyle Edwin Slater, 54, an aerial mapper who ran his own company in the US, was deported earlier this year from the infamous Lindela repatriation centre in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg.

Now living in Arizona, he sent a letter to Simon's Town resident Roelf Lotriet, who befriended him after meeting him in a local pub.

In it he describes how his prison cell at Pollsmoor was controlled by the 26s and 28s gangs and how most of their food was "sold" to warders to pay the rent for television sets.

Lotriet said that Slater had been "to hell and back" in SA with no one prepared to lift a hand to assist him.

"It was really shocking to see how little help was available to him," Lotriet said.

The drama started in Johannesburg four years ago when Slater was robbed at gunpoint and lost all his documents including his US passport.

In a letter to the Department of Home Affairs requesting an extension on his visa he wrote of his experience: "I had no identification. I could not open a bank account, could not leave the country, could not enter another country."

Lotriet said that Slater couldn't do a thing without any identification. He didn't have the money to pay for his temporary papers, neither could he get a job to raise some money."

When Lotriet met Slater about a year ago he was living on the mountains above Simon's Town with barely enough to eat. "He couldn't even get a place in a shelter because they wanted an ID."

Lotriet let Slater stay with him and found him work as a rubble remover. Slater had tried to get help from the US consulate but without success.

"His biggest fear was landing up in a SA jail because of all the horror stories."

But this is exactly what happened.

Slater was injured on the job and couldn't work so he decided to try to get home to the US.

He went to speak to an immigration officer in Cape Town in February but was promptly jailed in Pollsmoor Prison.

Slater describes how he and a group of other men were strip searched when they arrived.

"The first night was the worst. Grabbed a piece of foam to use for a mattress and tried to find space for it. The cell was packed and didn't get much sleep," he wrote.

He was later placed in a cell, built for 20 but with about 40 inmates, controlled by a "number 1 and a number 2 guy".

"Our number 1 was a 28 gang member and the number 2 was a 26. The cell was actually very organised and there were no major problems."

But he said the food was "just enough to keep you alive".

"All you get (for breakfast) is porridge. Everything else is taken. The bread goes into a community box and is sold to pay the rent for the television in your cell. That money is paid to the warders. The damn things are supposed to be free and I wanted my bread, but you keep your mouth shut."

On February 22 he was transported to the Lindela repatriation centre with 25 or 30 other "illegals".

"Don't get the name wrong, it's just another f***ing prison," he wrote in the letter.

There have been many claims of appalling treatment at Lindela and last year a damning report was released by the Department of Home Affairs after the death of four detainees.

It slated the centre's poor health care facilities, lack of staff and overcrowding.

Slater describes in his letter all the illegals he met there.

"There was a guy from Ecuador and one from Bolivia ...They were in prison together for smuggling drugs. There was a real nice guy named Mike from Armenia. Some from Angola, a couple from the Congo and a few from Zimbabwe."

Slater was at Lindela for a month before being deported and is now trying to rebuild his life. But his experience doesn't seem to have put him off travelling. In the letter he wrote: "Don't think I'll be staying in the US. My heart is elsewhere."

US consulate public diplomacy officer Daniel Claffey said an American citizen who lost their passport and was "out of money and out of luck" could get back to the United States by taking a repatriation loan and signing a repayment agreement.

They would also be issued with an emergency restricted passport which would get them home. "Whatever needs to be done to get them back will be done."

He said the loan to fly home, especially from a country as far away as South Africa, could be substantial but that a person had a year or two to pay it back.

Claffey added that if a person was arrested then he was at the mercy of the SA immigration authorities and the police.

"But they do inform us if an American citizen is arrested and we work with them to provide support."