Nisso-The Untold Story

By Nisso Benatar

Set in Zimbabwe, this gripping tale follows the ill-fated romance between Nisso and Julia, the daughter of a wealthy and ruthless businessman, Sam Levy. Levy's powerful connections are used to thwart the relationship, resulting in Nisso being falsely charged and subjected to years of corrupt police harassment.

As the plot unfol

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nisso Benatar
• Release date: Mar 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9789693092462

Nisso Benatar

Nisso Benatar was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1957, to parents with fascinating stories of their own. His father Kim, a native of Rhodes Island, was sent to South Africa as a young man to escape the Nazi invasions during World War 2. Kim eventually made his way north to Rhodesia where he settled. In 1953, he met Arte Hadjiloizou, a woman from Cyprus, who he later married and together they had two sons, Nisso and Leon. Nisso has been married twice and has a son from each marriage, Kim and Michael who reside in South Africa. On leaving Zimbabwe, Nisso went on to seek work in South Africa to be closer to his sons but with nothing available to him there, he ventured further afield to find work which took him to Nigeria, Cyprus, Ireland and finally the UK where he currently resides. Nisso, whilst professionally managing hotels, started his writing of this book which continued into the Covid lockdowns. The original writings were all greatly reduced as it was a more detailed account of the atrocities experienced and witnessed over the years in Zimbabwe. It is hoped that these would be expressed further in any visualisation that is made of this story

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

IMPRISONMENT - JUNE 1986

O

n 20th June 1986, I stood in the dock of the Harare High Court waiting to be sentenced.

I had turned 29 years old just 5 days before and had spent the last few days visiting my son Kim who was 6, at his grandmother’s house.

I had already been found guilty in October 1985 in a Regional Court and referred to the High Court for sentencing.

I was on bail pending sentencing in the High Court where my attorneys assured me, I would be granted bail pending an appeal.

I had been foolish, yet again, in believing and putting so much faith in them. They were after all typical Lawyers, giving clients continued hope of success and all the while milking me financially of all I had and far more, hence why I was standing there!

I had been on bail for a total of 4 years prior to this, initially reporting 3 times a day to a Police station.

It was at that time, 4 years of living hell for me-or so I thought at the time, until the bar on hell was raised and living it in would be the future for me…..

The Judge came in and started delivering his judgement, which I barley heard, my head was throbbing so loud and hard, and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my body it was beating so hard!

I had been found guilty of Inciting a minor to commit theft! A ludicrous charge which I was not guilty of!

Ironic considering that there were numerous other charges that I faced, that I was guilty of and yet these were dropped by the Magistrate court for various reasons.

Amongst the charges was Attempted Murder, Conspiracy to Murder, Theft of Jewellery, Theft of Foreign Currency, Illegally Dealing in Foreign Currency.

I was guilty of Conspiracy to Murder Sam Levy and Illegally dealing in foreign currency!

The judge handed down a sentence that shocked everyone – but none more than me of course!

He sentenced me to 10 years imprisonment!

2 of these were conditionally suspended for 5 years on condition that I do not commit any similar offences within 3 years.

A further 3 years were suspended on condition I make repatriation of the value of jewellery, being $60,450.00 to Sam Levy that was stolen from him, by his daughter Julia Levy!

My visibly shaken lawyer immediately got up and requested bail pending an appeal!

This was quickly refused!

The judge summoned the security officers in the court to take me down to the cells to await transport to Harare Central Prison!

Sam Levy sat there smiling and gratified, or so I thought, that he had got far more than his pound of flesh!

Gloria, his wife sat beside him like the obedient wife he had trained her to be, showing no emotion and never looking directly at me.

No words can describe my emotional state at being handcuffed and escorted downstairs to the basement where I was put into a cell, alone, and waited there for the next few hours for a prison van coming from Rotten Row Magistrates Courts filled with prisoners en route to the same destination!

My thoughts were with my son Kim whom I had said goodbye to a few hours earlier. I didn’t know how I would survive this or not see him again……

My lawyer assured me I should not worry! What a laugh!

Reassuring me he would submit an appeal to the Supreme Court to grant bail pending an appeal.

I had no choice but to believe him-this was my last vestige of any hope I had.

I could never have prepared for what was to come!

All that had transpired in the 4 previous years of what I thought was bad, being hounded and persecuted by an individual who corrupted everything he touched.

A man who had the power and money to buy anything including a very corrupt Police force, magistrates, lawyers and judges. And he did…would all pale by comparison to what lay in store for me in prison and being locked up with the worst and most dangerous criminals one could imagine.

I did not know it then, but Sam Levy would still take control my life in prison if it didn’t kill me first!

I did not know what it would take to survive, and that I would witness many deaths, murders, suicides & rapes before I would eventually evolve to what it took to become that person.

Nor in my wildest nightmares could I imagine ever becoming party to any of it……and pay prices to survive.

At 29 and what I had been through already for the last 4 years had toughened me – mentally and physically - being arrested most weekends, interrogated all hours and days, locked in police cells all over the country and being moved continuously so that my lawyers couldn’t find me or see me.

This culminated in an attempted suicide pact.

Then being locked up in a Psychiatric ward for 6 weeks, reporting to Police stations up to 3 times daily all the while etc. etc. but nothing was ever going to be the same or similar again!

The next few years would be literal survival at any cost in a world that I was to become part of….

CHAPTER 2

MEDIUM SECURITY PRISON - HARARE

I

t was already getting dark when the van pulled in. It was winter and darkness came earlier.

There were about 8 or 9 other prisoners in the truck. They had all been brought up from the court prisons of the Magistrates and Regional Courts in Rotten Row, in Harare.

Over the years leading up to my sentencing and second trial…..yes there were 2…I had become all too familiar with it all and how it worked.

A different ball game now that I had been convicted and would join the other side of the prison wall that every prisoner dreaded on the remand side-un-convicted-whose survival rate was much greater to those on the convicted side-medium security!

Those in medium security were held at bay by the fear of Maximum Security prisons and should they step out of line, that’s where they would end up. The survival rate in those was far less….

They drove us the Enterprise Road Prison-in Harare. Parked the truck and told us to get out.

I hadn't paid much attention to anyone in the truck and certainly no one spoke.

We all stood there and one by one, checked in. It was late in the day and the normal day shift of security guards had already left.

We were told to empty our pockets onto the table as well as any other jewellery, watches etc. we were told to remove our shoes, belts, socks.

We were searched again and then split up in 2 groups and locked up in cells. There were 4 of us in mine.

There was nothing in the cell! The cell was too small for 4 of us to lie down on the cold cement floor. There were no blankets!

I sat there huddled into my corner, still wearing my suit, collar up and trying to stay warm and crying quietly with my head between my legs so that no one could see me or hear me.

No ways I could sleep or wanted to sleep! I had been put on sleeping pills a few years earlier, when it all started, and was quite addicted to them by now.

The night was long and cold but morning soon arrived and our cells were opened, a head count was done and told to follow the prison guard around to the other side.

We went through gate after gate before we arrived at the front office to the main convicted prison itself.

The process began to register us, weigh and measure us and classify us. Classification of prisoners were based on the seriousness of the offence but more so on the sentence received.

You are also told what your earliest release date is. One third of sentences are removed, on arrival and you are told this is for your good behaviour whilst incarcerated!

If you misbehave they just keep adding time on! In my case, 20 months had been removed leaving me with 40 months to do!

My earliest release date would be 19th October 1989. Three years and 4 months to go….

This did not register with me and I refused to believe that I would be there that long. I had an appeal going in…and that hope kept me going later….initially, I just wanted to die….

I was classified as a C class prisoner, which was the majority of all prisoners.

We were told to strip and place our clothing into bags, which were labeled and tagged.

We stood there naked, covering ourselves, whilst were we then moved into another room where we received our prison uniform-white canvas shirt and white canvas shorts. Neither fitted properly and were old and torn.

I had been through these corridors before! During the last 4 years when I was being arrested almost every weekend, under the instruction of Sam Levy of course.

One particular time was being locked up for 6 weeks for psychiatric evaluation. Although this was in the notorious Ward 12 initially, located in the avenues in Harare, I was transferred to the Psychiatric ward of the Harare Prison Hospital for evaluation this was here in the Harare Central Prison, in the so called Hospital, which housed all the criminally and/or mentally insane, but also the gallows!

The Gallows were a fully functional and operational section where prisoners were being hung every Monday. During this time us inmates were taken to the courtyard at the back of the building for several hours, walking around in circles with all the white rats from the drains, everywhere!

I came back through this building now as a convicted prisoner, walking through the corridors towards the centre courtyard of the prison.

I walked through and was engulfed by the bad memories of being locked up in that hospital.

I stood there for a moment, with the Hospital on the left of the courtyard to the right of that was the courtyard where prisoners were left all day until being locked up in their cells at 3pm.

To the right of that stood A Block prisoners. We never saw them but heard them most of the time.

A Class prisoners were those on Death Row and awaiting hanging.

They were all in single cells and had their own courtyard at the back of the block where they were each let out into for 15-30 minutes per day.

Any other A class prisoners that were walking around the prison complex were Trustees. They were originally on Death Row and had sentences reduced to Life in prison!

Next to A Block, almost facing me was B Block- B Class prisoners - more serious offenders than C class but not on death row. Here you have prisoners who have seriously long sentences, that most will not survive and are given jobs or trades to do to keep them in line! Sentences here could range to Triple Life Sentences or over 100 years…

To the right of B & C Blocks was another block C as well, then the courtyard where prisoners had their