It's like hell in jail'

He was arrested with his co-accused Musa Ngubane during the April 12 supposed uprising last year.

Dlamini, who last week Friday was released after paying E50 000 bail, said he would not wish anyone time in jail, even if it was at the remand centre.

While noting that after sometime a person gets used to the surroundings and being confined, there were a number of challenges that inmates and those on remand experienced.

This included gang wars, sodomy and prison spies.

Explaining about the different gangs, Dlamini, who is the Swaziland National Union of Students President, said there are four types of groups who mainly dominate prisons, namely 26s, 27, 28s and the big-fivers.

The 26s who are sometimes known as ‘two-sixes’ consist of capitalists while the 27s were made up of killers and murderers, the 28s deal with sodomy and rape and the ‘big-fivers’ were prison spies.

He said the gangs usually met after supper to discuss different issues and each gang had their own ‘special’ language.

"The lingo in jail is different, an ordinary person would not follow a conversation between these guys. In the time that I was in there, I witnessed at least one incident where the gangs clashed. Though there was no physical exchange, the mood was tense," he said.

Dlamini also noted that inmates were not forced to join the gang, as it was up to the individual to decide.

He explained that gangs were not rife at the remand centre but he had been informed that the situation was worse at the Matsapha Correctional Institution.

When asked which group he was affiliated to, Dlamini said he only enquired about their role.

"This helped because I knew what to do and where not to thread. However, I had my own group of aspiring politicians," he said.

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