At least 11 prisoners currently on the run, as SA’s prisons battle to wrangle escapees

At least eleven convicted prisoners of the total of 25, who escaped from the Department of Correctional Services’ centres across the country between April and December of 2022, are currently on the run.

The department could not immediately give a breakdown of the offences and sentences of the escaped prisoners still fugitives from the law; these could easily include rapists and murderers.

Also, the data provided by the department is from 1 April 2022 till December 2022, with no recent data to indicate if any of the escaped prisoners have since been arrested.

Most recent data

With a total of 10 escaped prisoners during this period, the Eastern Cape leads the pack with most prison breaks and five prisoners still at large.

Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West accounted for a combined five escapes and four re-arrests, with the two that broke out in Gauteng rearrested.

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Only two prisoners that escaped from Free State and Northern Cape have been re-arrested and two of the four that escaped in North West are still at large.

The dramatic escape of rapist and murderer Thabo Bester in a staged fire that supposedly killed him in May last year but later surfaced shopping in Sandton City has brought prison fool-proof under sharp focus.

Internal problems

Theodore Petrus, associate professor of anthropology at the University of the Free State, said Bester’s epic escape was like something out of the American television series Prison Break.

“It is something similar now. You would expect to see this kind of thing happening in a television show or in the movies, but it is not something you expect to happen in real life. We expect that there would be checks and balances in place and procedures, chains of communication to be in place that can prevent this type of thing from happening,” he said.

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He said if these systems were in place, the logic explanation for this dramatic Bester escape could happen was if there was internal assistance to the plot.

Petrus said tough questions about the escape need to be answered right from the top leadership responsible for correctional services, all the way down to the officials managing Free State’s Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein. 

He said there should be accountability as to how this escape could have happened, saying it was important that investigations are conducted and the findings thereof compared with responses of those who will be questioned on this saga.

Western Cape’ mass prison break

According to the department’s 2020/21 Annual Report, the Western Cape Region had a mass escape of 68 inmates in one incident on 24 July 2020, which contributed to 58% of the total escapes for the financial year under review.

The report noted that failure to adhere to policies and procedures resulted in an increase in escapes where 104 inmates escaped in the first two quarters of the financial year.

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These accounted for 89% of the total escapes nationally for the financial year as compared to the second two quarters of the financial year where 13 escapes were recorded (11%).

Interventions

Immediate interventions such as the deployment of the Emergency Support Team to hot spots, clean-up operations, direct management involvement and provision of appropriate protective gear for searching contributed to the reduction of escapes.

Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the number of escapes decreased from 117 in the 2020/21 financial year to 22 in the 2021/22 financial year, which translates to a decrease of 95 escapes (81%).

“This was attributed to the commitment of security personnel, implementation of Standard Operating Procedures and the Gang Combatting Strategy,” he said.

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