A second of four suspected robbers who escaped from holding cells at the Bramley Police Station on 13 April appeared at Alex Magistrates’ Court on 26 April after his rearrest.
Fikile Mbatha, who now faces a charge of escaping from lawful custody, was rearrested in the early morning at a 2nd Avenue, Alex home, days after the escape.
Magistrate Renier Boshoff assisted by state prosecutor Lufuno Maphiri remanded him in custody pending a hearing on 7 May where he will inform the court of his legal representative on the escape charge. This before the hearing on the main charge. The first accomplice, Sibusiso Zulu of Hillbrow who was re-arrested on the same day as the escape following a police alert, has already been sentenced to two years for escaping from lawful custody. He was found walking suspiciously in shoes without shoelaces and trousers that had paint on them, similar to the paint on the roof of the cells.
The court heard that the four, who were in the same cell with others, detained for unknown reasons, overpowered a cook and police officer who went into the cell to feed them. The cook was beaten and a phone and some money were taken from the officer by the four who locked them in the cell before escaping.
Luckily, the cook remained with his phone and contacted other officers who found the cell keys in the kitchen and released them. This, after footsteps of the escapees were heard on the roof as they fled. The other two were still at large at the time of reporting.
