An attempted escape by a bandiet at the Worcester Prison was foiled on Sunday as wakker wardens caught him taking a stroll outside of the prison grounds.
A video captured and shared on social media shows the inmate walking along a gravel road, prompting whistleblower Queeny Madikizela-Malema to piemp slapgat officials and call for an investigation.
Speaking to the Daily Voice, Queeny says she got a skrik when residents in Worcester sent her the clip yesterday.
In the short video taken on a cellphone camera, a person is heard asking how the bandiet escaped.
“Kyk hier vir Choppa. Hoe het hy dan nou uitgekom?” the person asks.
Queeny says she immediately called the prison management after receiving the clip.
“The video came from the community who spotted him walking outside of the prison. I called the area commissioner who was very helpful and immediately got on it,” she explains.
“This bandiet just simply walked out of the prison and we established that during the Sunday visits, he took advantage and just slipped out because there was skeleton staff and people were visiting their loved ones inside the prison.
“Someone from the public spotted the person and we found out that the female wardens realised what had happened and followed him and caught him.”
Department of Correctional Services (DCS) spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, confirms the incident and says: “One inmate attempted to escape and was caught by officials who responded promptly as he tried to run on foot. The officials never lost sight of him as he tried the run, hence catching him was not a mission.”
Queeny says the department should beef up security as the jailbreak raises several questions.
“The thing is, Sunday visits are only for sentenced prisoners and the person who escaped was an awaiting trial prisoner so how did he get out in the first place when he should have been in the courtyard at that time for exercise?”
“The department must investigate how this happened and there are a few gates he would have had to have passed to get out of the prison grounds.
“If it were not for the community, who knows what would have happened? DCS must investigate their officials and they cannot get someone from the same prison to investigate it must come from outside.