C-Max: Warder up for murder
10/11/2004 11:14  - (SA)  

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File photo of a man being arrested during a hostage drama at C-Max prison in Pretoria. (Brenda Muller, Beeld)

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Pretoria - A correctional services official is to appear in court on Thursday after the deaths of Pretoria's C-Max prison head, a warder and two inmates in a failed escape bid on Sunday.

Superintendent Morne van Wyk said the official, who was employed at the maximum security jail, will appear in the Pretoria magistrate's court on four murder charges.

"More charges may be added as the investigation proceeds," Van Wyk said.

The official was arrested on Monday "in connection with the break of security and the foiled escape attempt", said the correctional services on Tuesday.

Initial accounts indicated that a prisoner had obtained a firearm and used it to kill another inmate, prison head Sam Gomba, 45, and warder Dan Ndinisa, 41, before turning the gun on himself on Sunday morning.

The department has not yet made it clear exactly what happened.

According to unconfirmed accounts, a female visitor smuggled a firearm into the prison and handed it to an inmate. The department has not yet confirmed or denied this.

The dead inmates have been identified as Gift Mpho Kganyago, 30, and Ronny Menyatso, age not given.

Kganyago was serving a sentence for robbery with aggravating circumstances, and Menyatso for murder, theft, attempted murder, possession of an illegal firearm and escaping from custody.

A memorial service for Gomba and Ndinisa is to be held at the Pretoria Prison rugby field on Thursday morning.

On Monday, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said he was "seriously considering" appointing a task team to probe the incident.

C-Max is a maximum security facility designed to hold violent and disruptive prisoners classified as dangerous. Its inmates include apartheid-era murderer Eugene de Kock, serial killer and rapist Moses Sithole, and those charged in the Boeremag treason trial with plotting to overthrow the government.

Two other men arrested outside the prison a few hours after Sunday's escape attempt were released on Tuesday after being questioned.

- SAPA

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