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Houdini back to C-Max after op
04/12/2006 15:58 - (SA)
Pretoria - Annanias Mathe, the C-Max prison escapee who was recaptured on Monday morning, was taken under armed guard from the high security prison in Pretoria to hospital the same afternoon.
His guards were both police officers and prison warders.
Mathe was to have surgery to fix the broken bone in his leg where he was wounded during his Monday morning arrest.
"We have to look after the wellness of people even when they are offenders," Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said.
He did not say to which hospital Mathe would be taken, but said he would be taken back to C-Max as soon as the operation was over.
"His blood pressure is dropping... apparently the bone shattered where they have shot him. "We have agreed that he could be taken to hospital, he's still a human being," Balfour said. Special cell
He said that Mathe would have to receive post-operative care in C-Max prison.
"After surgery his going right back where he belongs," Balfour said.
He said a special cell had been set aside for Mathe.
"We have strengthened everything around that cell to make sure he doesn't ever get out of that cell again," Balfour said.
Mathe, a Mozambican citizen, escaped from prison more than two weeks ago. Tracker
He was caught on Monday morning after stealing a car during a house robbery in Craighall Park in Johannesburg. Mathe was wounded and arrested, after the car which he stole was tracked to Tembisa on the East Rand.
"The tracking device on the vehicle was activated and the tracking company started to follow the vehicle, assisted by a helicopter," said national police spokesperson Sally de Beer.
An employee of the Altech Netstar, the company who tracked the car, chased Mathe, who stabbed him in the face. The employee then fired shots at Mathe, hitting him in the buttocks and legs.
Mathe faces 51 charges, including murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery, said De Beer.
- SAPA
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