Clive Derby-Lewis word in die tronk mishandel

Clive Derby-Lewis word in die tronk mishandel Maandag, 27 September 2010  Praag
Clive Derby-Lewis kan nog steeds nie uit die hospitaal ontslaan word nie, ongeag die verbete stryd deur ses dokters om sy gesondheid te verbeter.

Volgens sy prokureur, mnr. Marius Coertze, is Derby-Lewis op Maandag 20 September in die hospitaal opgeneem as gevolg van ‘n akute toestand van gangreen in sy regteronderbeen.

Hy is Dinsdag 21 September daarvoor geopereer en dooie weefsel van 8cm x 6cm (omtrent se groot soos ‘n man se vuis) is uit sy been verwyder. Hy is daarna met binne-aarse antibiotika behandel om die gangreen te probeer stop. Die wond is oopgelaat om te dreineer en die wonddekkings word gereeld gewissel in ‘n poging om die wond steriel te hou.

Die been is tans nog geswel en die kursus antibiotika is voltooi. Die swelling dui daarop dat die stryd teen die gangreen nog nie gewen is nie. Mnr Derby-Lewis is op ‘n tweede en sterker kursus antibiotika geplaas om die gangreen te keer.

Hy is egter in ‘n erge verwaarloosde en mishandelde toestand uit die gevangenis opgeneem en dit is nog nie seker of sy been gered kan word nie. As die gangreen nie vinnig verbeter nie, sal sy regteronderbeen afgesit moet word om verspreiding van die gangreen na die res van sy liggaam te voorkom.

Hoë bloeddruk
In die kliniese ondersoek van mnr Clive Derby-Lewis by sy eerste opname in die hospitaal, het dit geblyk dat sy bloeddruk lewensgevaarlik hoog is (172/140). Die medici het begin om medikasie te verskaf om sy bloeddruk onder beheer te bring. Volgens Coertze, is "sy bloeddruk tans onder beheer, maar sal heel waarskynlik weer onstabiel raak, sodra hy terugkeer tronk toe en die goeie mediese behandeling wat hy tans ontvang, ontbeer".

Kanker
By opname het die dokters ‘n verspreide velkanker aan Clive se regtervoorkop bemerk. Die kanker strek van die haarlyn by sy regterslaap tot by die oogbank en dek ongeveer ‘n area van 5cm X 5cm. Volgens die sjirurg, dokter Durand, se medeling aan Clive, neem velkanker ‘n geruime tyd om so groot te word en dui dit daarop dat dit reeds oor ‘n lang periode (twee jaar of langer) presenteer het. Die kanker is so diep dat dit spontaan bloei. Biopsies van die velkanker het bevestig dat dit wel aggressiewe velkanker is wat dringend behandel moet word.

Verdere bloedtoetse wat op mnr Derby-Lewis gedoen is, dui daarop dat hy waarskynlik ook prostaatkanker kan hê. ‘n Uroloog se dienste gaan betrek word om hierdie diagnose te bevestig.

Behandeling
Dr. Durand het Clive meegedeel dat sy toestand die gevolg is van growwe nalatigheid en mishandeling van Clive. Hy is van mening dat enige mediese praktisyn sonder moeite die diagnose van verskeie siekte-toestande waaraan Clive ly, kon maak.

Marius Coertze, Clive se prokureur, sê dat "Korrektiewe Dienste duidelik bewus was van sy kroniese en akute mediese toestand, maar dit waarskynlik verwyg en verwaarloos het, in die hoop dat Clive aan sogenaamde 'natuurlike oorsake' sal sterf. Korrektiewe Dienste se klandestiene en onmenslike verwaarlosing van Clive sou dan maklik onder die mat ingevee kon word."

Mishandeling
Die departement van Korrektiewe Dienste se skokkende mishandeling van Clive, ‘n 74-jarige bejaarde man, duur steeds voort, selfs binne-in die hospitaal, volgens mnr Marius Coertze. Tydens die operasie van sy been, het Clive se twee bewaarders daarop aangedring om rondom die operasietafel te staan in die teater, terwyl die operasie uitgevoer word. Dit het die werk van die dokters belemmer en was ‘n oorlas.

Eers nadat Marius Coertze, Clive se prokuereur, gedreig het om die bewaarders vir minagting van die hof te laat vervolg, het hulle ingestem om buite die deur van die teater te wag en deur die venster die operasie dop te hou. Die span dokters het erg beswaar gemaak oor hierdie insident in die teater. Dit belemmer die dokters se werk en veroorsaak ‘n risiko van infeksie en die verspreiding van kieme in die teater. As ‘n reël word geen persone wat nie deel van die teaterspan vorm in die teater toegelaat nie.

Die tronkbewaarders het mnr Derby-Lewis aan sy hospitaalbed vasgeketting. Hy kan glad nie opstaan en rondbeweeg nie. Dit is noodsaaklik dat ‘n pasiënt post-operatief voldoende beweging kry om bloedklonte te vermy. Bloedklonte wat nou ontstaan, kan trombose in die been of hart of embolisme in die long veroorsaak. Ten einde hierdie trauma en selfs dood te voorkom, word hy nou behandel met bloedverdunnende middels. Dit is die gevolg van Korrektiewe Dienste se houding om ‘n 74-jarige bejaarde man aan sy hospitaalbed vas te ketting.

Dokters is geskok dat die tronkpersoneel onbeskaamd en openlik, terwyl mnr Derby-Lewis onder mediese behandeling is, poog om sy gesondheid te benadeel deur die dokters te verhinder om hom te behandel en in stryd met die medici se opdragte op te tree. Een bewaarder wou selfs vir dokter Durand verhinder om Clive op die oggend van 24 September te ondersoek omdat hy sê hy ken nie die dokter nie en weet nie of hy in die kamer toegelaat mag word nie.

Volgens Marius Coertze is die nuutste voorval van Korrektiewe Dienste se onmenslike houding teenoor Clive Derby-Lewis dat mev Gaye Deby-Lewis nie toegelaat word om hom te besoek nie. Sy is slegs een besoek aan mnr Deby-Lewis vergun. Sy het hom gister besoek. Sy word gedwing om telkens meer as ‘n uur te wag vir ‘n skriftelike toestemming om hom te besoek. So ‘n skriftelike toestemming is slegs vir een besoek van 45 minute geldig. Dan moet sy die volgende dag weer na die tronk toe gaan vir ‘n nuwe toestemming. Die Pretoria-Sentraalgevangenis se administrasie is gesluit vir die lang naweek, met die gevolg dat niemand hom gedurende die naweek sou kon besoek nie.

Die tronk het ook aan hom vorms verskaf om te teken. Hy sê dit kom daarop neer dat hy persoonlik vir die bewaarders wat hom oppas se vergoeding moet betaal. Mnr Coertze kon hom nie adviseer oor die regsimplikasies van die vorm nie, aangesien hy toegang tot mnr Derby-Lewis geweier word.

CLIVE DERBY-LEWIS

CLIVE DERBY-LEWIS is a fifth generation South African who was born in Cape Town in 1936. He spent nineteen years in voluntary service in the South African Army’s Citizen Force, attaining the rank of Commandant. At the age of 32, he became commanding officer of the Witwatersrand Rifles Regiment, the youngest CO in the regiment’s history. He still retains that record. He took the regiment to the SWA border during the war there where the regiment served with distinction.

After his military career, he entered politics and is one of the few politicians in South Africa to have served in the four arms of the previous government: local government, the Provincial Council, Parliament and the President’s Council.

He was a founder member of the South African Conservative Party in 1982 and served as that party’s official opposition spokesman on Economic Affairs. He established a parliamentary record by putting more than 800 questions to the ruling National Party during his term as a member of Parliament from 1987 to 1989.

He has been active in numerous organizations – many started by himself – to inform the South African public in general about South Africa’s political direction. (His predictions of course became a reality). He served on the boards of two hospitals, a school for children with learning disabilities, and a high school. He was a Zone Commander in SA’s Civil Defence Corps and was involved in many ex-servicemen’s organizations. He was elected Vice President of the London-based Western Goals, an organization devoted to the preservation of Western civilization, and was a member of various anti-communist groups. He attended the World Anti-Communist League Congress in Brussels in 1990.

A committed Christian, Derby-Lewis was involved in many groups opposed to the politicization of South Africa’s churches, their support for liberation theology and their active assistance to revolutionary forces in South Africa. He was born a Catholic and fought against the Catholic Church’s support for these revolutionary forces. He left the Catholic Church some years ago and is a member of Afrikaanse Protestante Kerk. (APK).

In 1993 Clive was given the death sentence for his involvement in the assassination by Janus Walus of Chris Hani, a communist revolutionary who wanted to see South Africa as a “wasteland”. In 1990, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

The law of South Africa says that a life prisoner over the age of 65 may apply for parole, and this he did. In July 2008, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) Parole Board recommended he be given parole, to be released on 15 October 2008. DCS did nothing about this and the family was forced to take DCS to court, where the case was lost after a full bench (the first time in history) ruled that his application was faulty.

Again in 2010, the Parole Board recommended Clive’s release on parole, and he is waiting to see what transpires this time. Clive has been in prison for more than seventeen years.

I should have been released one year ago today

I should have been released one year ago today, but certain politicians have succeeded in keeping me locked up in prison unlawfully.

Justice is not available to those in South Africa who are deemed to be “from the wrong political order”. Notwithstanding the price I have paid in prison time for being convicted of killing Chris Hani, I have been “left to rot in jail” by individual ANC politicians and some bureaucrats, who have taken it upon themselves to effectively block my parole by political means.

People from across the entire political spectrum, from far left to far right including scores of black and white prisoners, tell me that “everyone knows” I am being kept in prison regardless of the merits of my parole recommendation and that if I had been anyone else there would have been justice for me.

This parole was recommended by the parole board who recommended that I be released on 15 October 2008. Now, one year later, I am still in prison with little hope of being treated fairly.

Clive Derby-Lewis, 15 October 2009
Prison Number: 93623417
Pretoria Central Prison
Potgieter Street
0001, PRETORIA