No place to hide

2004-03-28 21:32

Johannesburg - Police armed with a new fingerprinting device have made prisons an unsafe haven for criminals who have sought to evade justice by hiding from police in jails around Gauteng.

Since Thursday, 1 653 wanted suspects have been identified in various prisons around the province and re-arrested for crimes other than those they were being detained for.

Among them is the alleged murderer of 11-year-old Tina Bernardes who escaped from custody in January.

Sipho Dube Mthandeni Mhlangathi, who walked out of the Wynberg magistrate' court on January 12 after responding to another prisoner's name, was found hiding from an intensive manhunt under a false name in the Johannesburg prison.

Mhlangathi was apparently arrested for the attempted theft of a motor vehicle by Cleveland police in Alexandra shortly after his escape from custody.

Gauteng police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said Mhlangathi and the others would appear in various Gauteng magistrate's courts in connection with a wide range of serious charges from Monday.

"This crime prevention operation, 'Operation Letsema' was aimed at tracing wanted criminals and identifying those criminals that are wanted in all Gauteng Prisons through the 'Morpho Touch' (a high-tech fingerprinting machine)," Dlamini said.

- SAPA