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Inmates paid warder R21 000
14/11/2004 12:06 - (SA)
Sonia Molema
Pretoria - The warder who was charged this week for assisting the jailbreak attempt from C-Max - the country's most-protected prison - was paid R21 000 by the prisoners he was helping - and was promised a minibus once they were in hiding.
City Press can on Sunday reveal that Mlungisi Msibi allegedly took a licensed gun from a taxi-driver friend and gave it to a cleaner in the prison to hand over to five inmates planning to escape.
This revelation came as a woman visitor was arrested at the same prison on Saturday morning after a cellphone was found hidden in her panties during a body search.
She apparently wanted to smuggle it to her partner who is serving a 12-year sentence.
Minister Ngconde Balfour on Saturday visited the prison on a routine inspection and announced that contact visits were being banned with immediate effect.
Police sources close to the shooting investigation said the gun was smuggled into the prison at least two weeks before the attempted escape last week, along with five rounds of ammunition.
It was these five bullets that last Sunday left two senior prison officials and two inmates dead when the planned escaped went horribly wrong.
The two officials were shot for refusing to escort the prisoners out, while two prisoners committed suicide with the gun.
A third prisoner who survived the suicide pact has confessed, and it was his statements, as well as the tracing of the owner of the licensed 9mm firearm, that led the police to grade 1 junior warder Ishmael Mlungisi Msibi (34).
Msibi now faces four provisional murder charges, counts of aiding and abetting an escape, and is apparently singing like a canary to investigators about the part he played in the ensuing bloodbath.
Wounded prisoner confessed
The wounded prisoner allegedly confessed to investigators that Msibi had already received R20 000 in cash, which was organised by their families. Another R1 000 for obtaining the gun had also been paid to Msibi.
The licensed gun used during the breakout attempt was traced to Msibi's friend, a taxi driver from Mamelodi, the very same Sunday the tragedy occurred.
Msibi's friend told investigators that he had given Msibi his 9mm pistol for him to clean four months ago and every time he had asked him about it, Msibi had allegedly given him different stories.
Sources close to the investigations said the gun was smuggled into the prison "about a week or a month ago".
It is understood that Msibi gave the gun to a cleaner, who is also a prisoner, to pass it to his fellow inmates.
City Press could not establish how long the prisoner had the gun in his possession before Sunday. The cleaner is apparently also co-operating with the police and may become a state witness against Msibi.
Sources said Msibi confessed on Tuesday about the R21 000 and the promise of a minibus from the prisoners after their freedom.
Msibi has apparently told investigators that murder had not been part of the escape plan.
- City Press
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