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C-Max escape 'an inside job'
20/11/2006 12:27 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A task team will be set up to investigate management at Pretoria's C-Max prison, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Monday.
Balfour spoke to the SABC after a Mozambican national, Annanias Mathe, 29, escaped from the country's most secure prison on Saturday night.
"One of the things I want done is to do a spot check on everybody who was there or who was not supposed to be there or who was not there, probably purposefully," Balfour said.
"We need to do all those things, I need a task team with the police. We are going to do even polygraphy tests so we can get the truth of the whole thing, so we can get to the bottom of it."
Meanwhile, Pretoria police said a search around the clock would continue on Monday.
Military precision
"We haven't slept at all for nearly two days and are still searching for him," said investigating officer Captain Arnold Boonsthra.
It is believed that the "Houdini" stripped and covered his entire body with petroleum jelly to climb out of a window measuring just 20cm by 60cm.
Correctional services spokesperson Bheki Manzini was quoted by the Pretoria News website as saying that the escape was carried out with military precision.
Mathe apparently broke two steel bars from his bed which he wedged on either side of the window to help him slide his shoulders through.
He apparently took another steel pipe from his bed and made a hook. He then tied his clothes and bed linen to it and used that to slide out of the cell down the firewall.
Halfway down, Mathe used some of the grime he had collected on his way down the wall to write a note to prison officials saying: "Fuck you."
Boonsthra could not confirm reports that Mathe may have colluded with prison officials during his escape.
"I can't divulge anything at this stage. Police are busy with investigations," he said.
However, the SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) said the escape was "an inside job".
"Although we don't have the finer details and facts about how the escape occurred, we can without any fear of contradiction, put our heads on the block and say it was an inside job," said Sapohr president Golden Miles Bhudu.
This was not Mathe's first escape from custody.
Manzini said: "In April 2005 he escaped while in police custody. At the time he was housed next to the staff office to monitor him closely."
It initially took a task team nine months to arrest Mathe.
Mathe faced 51 charges, including murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery.
Mathe was detained at A6 section, which houses hardened criminals regarded as escape risks.
Boonsthra urged anyone with useful information to call Captain Fires Jansen van Vuuren on 082 822 8174 or Inspector Selepe on 082 225 2230.
"Members of the public should contact police and not try to arrest him on their own because he is dangerous," said Boonsthra.
- SAPA
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