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NEWS

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 2012

The Star

Study finds aspirin can lower risk of cancer

LONDON: Taking aspirin cuts the risk of certain cancers by more than 40 percent even when taken only every other day , according to a study . Researchers have found that even a low dose of the painkiller reduces the odds of bowel and stomach cancers. Women who took one 100mg tablet every other day were 43 percent less likely to get bowel cancer and 36 percent less at risk of stomach cancer, after a 20 years. Studies have shown that a daily dose of aspirin cuts the risk of developing cancer, and of tumours spreading. But until now, it was not known whether the pills had similar preventive effects when taken less frequently . Researchers from Harvard University and Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, the US, looked at the records of 39 876 women over 45. Half were told to take one 100mg aspirin tablet every other day while the remainder were given a placebo. After 18 years researchers compared how many women from each group had developed cancer and found the odds of developing bowel or stomach cancer among those on aspirin were significantly lower. Daily Mail

Minister taken to court for brutality in SA jails

Prisoner takes legal action in order to stop assaults and receive care for injuries
CAROLYN RAPHAELY

HILE allegations of police brutality, assault and torture are being heard by the Farlam Commission in Rustenburg, late last month Wandile Tozi, an inmate at the St Albans Correctional Centre, brought an urgent application to end his own assault. Tozi, in the Port Elizabeth High Court, is taking on the Minister of Correctional Services Sbu Ndebele and the head of Port Elizabeths St Albans Prison in order to compel prison warders to stop assaulting him, and to ensure that he received medical attention for his injuries. Tozi, 31, is also the 209th plaintiff in what is probably the largest damages claim ever instituted against the minister of Correctional Services by 231 inmates and former St Albans inmates. This was after a prison-wide orgy of violence, assaults and beatings that took place there in 2005. The matter should be heard next year. Now Tozi is instituting another damages claim against the minister relating to a second spate of assaults and beatings by St Albans warders that occurred late last month. Tozis second damages claim is being instituted at a time when annexures to the departments 2011/12 latest budget report reveal contingent liabilities of R1.3 billion set aside for legal claims including nearly R1bn for bodily injury and assault for the year ending March 2012. Assaults on inmates do not appear to be limited to those in the custody of the department. Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) spokesman Moses Dlamini says 194 charges of assault and

STAND: Wandile Tozi has taken legal action in the Port Elizabeth High Court in order to compel prison warders to stop assaulting him, and to ensure he receives medical attention for his injuries.
beatings were laid against the police by survivors of the Marikana massacre who were held at Phokeng, Mogase and Jericho police stations. Torture appears increasingly to be a reality of South African prison life. The most recent 2011/12 Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) report records that it received 71 complaints of assault on inmates by officials that may qualify as torture. JICSs independent correctional centre visitors also received 1 945 complaints of member-on-inmate assaults. Tozis legal representative, Egon Oswald, says Tozi was

assaulted and beaten after a dispute with a warder at the St Albans Medium B Correctional facility over the confiscation of money . Warders dragged him away in front of a number of his cellmates who had to endure his screams as he was viciously beaten in a nearby office, Oswald said. Fearing for his life after seeing Tozis naked bleeding body being dragged away from the office by warders, other inmates raised the alarm. Following Tozis assault, he was repeatedly denied access to Oswald, who was forced to bring an application to the high court to gain access to his client and to seek permission to photograph Tozis injuries. In 2010 Oswald became the first South African attorney to successfully prosecute South Africa for human rights violations at the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). Having exhausted all domestic remedies, Bradley McCallum, a former St Albans inmate tortured by warders along with 70 cellmates, sought relief from the UNHRC. South Africa ignored five requests by the UNHRC to respond to the allegations. Subsequently South Africa was instructed by the UNHRC to investigate the claims, prosecute those responsible and provide a remedy and information about measures taken in 180 days and to criminalise torture in its domestic legislation. To date, no investigation has been concluded, some of the warders implicated in the beatings remain in their jobs and torture is still not a crime in South Africa. Carolyn Raphaely is a member of the Wits Justice Project that investigates miscarriages of justice

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