The shocking escape of a rhino-poaching suspect from police custody this month while awaiting trial has raised serious concerns, as well as allegations of breaches of protocol and security failures, and increased the public’s distrust in the fundamental integrity of the criminal justice system.
Not only that, but alarming details about the incident raise the spectre that the system has been critically weakened and denuded of capacity, to the point at which simple, logical connections are not being made: even suspects with long criminal associations are not being swiftly identified, nor dealt with accordingly.
That the escapee did a runner is beyond doubt. Either this was an assisted escape, or the result of gross incompetence or a combination.
It took two weeks for the authorities to discover that the suspect, who used the alias Thomas Chauke when he was arrested and booked into custody, was not who he claimed to be.
But by then it was too late. Someone had left the stable door open, and the horse had already bolted.
The Mail & Guardian has established that “Chauke” is in fact Thabo Zachariah Muyambo, the same dangerous criminal with a significant set of prior convictions who had been on the run for 11 months after tunneling out from Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru prison last December.
Muyambo had served just 18 months behind bars. He was sentenced to life in prison for rape, kidnapping and robbery on 7 June 2019.
Last month, on the night of 20 October, Muyambo, aka Chauke, was one of four suspects from Gauteng who were arrested after they had allegedly killed two rhinos and chopped off their horns at the Madikwe Game Reserve.
The gang was caught holding more than just a “smoking gun” when field rangers pulled over and searched their getaway vehicle. Two sets of freshly cut rhino horns, a hunting rifle, a silencer, an axe and knives were found in the vehicle, which was impounded.
The suspects were booked into custody at the nearby Nietverdiend police station, where they were held and transported 60km to Zeerust and back for court appearances over the next two weeks. However, on the morning of 3 November, a red flag was raised when only three of the four poaching suspects appeared in the Zeerust magistrate’s court for bail applications.
Sources told the M&G they believed Muyambo was never physically booked into the holding cells at court that day, which immediately raised a host of suspicious scenarios.
Similarly, there were no visible or reported attempts of police guards or court orderlies making any effort to arrest a fleeing prisoner at the court premises.
Responding to the M&G’s inquiry about an escaped prisoner on the loose, South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesman, brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone, wrote: “We can confirm that a case of escape from lawful custody was opened for investigation. That after Thomas Chauke allegedly escaped from lawful custody between 9am and 9.30am at Zeerust magistrate’s court holding cells. Circumstances that led to the escape are still being investigated.”
Pressed for more details, Mokgwabone added: “We cannot confirm that the accused was aided in his escape. According to information gathered so far, he escaped while in a passage leading to the court cells.”
At the time of publication, this fiasco was still under investigation.
Whether Muyambo’s most recent escape was a Houdini-esque vanishing act, or if there were hidden hands at play, remains unanswered.
What is deeply troubling is that the automated fingerprint identification (Afis) had allegedly matched the “Chauke” fingerprints to Muyambo’s unique set of prints and criminal record profile days before he disappeared into the ether at Zeerust, but little or nothing was done about it.
Afis is a biometric identification methodology that uses digital imaging technology to obtain, store and analyse fingerprint data. The normal turnaround time for Afis to match a set of fingerprints is about three to five working days.
‘Thomas Chauke’ (left) aka Thabo Zacharia Muyambo (right).
Muyambo’s criminal profile and details would then also have been attached with the Afis file, to the SAP69 report made available by the Local Criminal Record Centre, indicating that Chauke was, in fact, Muyambo, the fugitive Mozambican national who was supposed to be serving multiple life sentences on 21 charges at Kgosi Mampuru.
By now, the dots should have been connected, linking back to Muyambo’s prison break at the department of correctional services last December. But this appears to have been overlooked, or ignored.
Asked to confirm new allegations that Chauke was, in fact, Muyambo, Mokgwabone said: “At the time of the arrest, the accused [Chauke] did not have any documentation with him. As a result, immigration was involved. We can confirm that it was established a day before the bail application that the accused’s real name is Thabo Zacharia Muyambo of Daveyton, Gauteng.”
Further probing questions were stonewalled by a standard South African Police Service (SAPS) response.
“The information you require forms part of the police investigation and is sub judice. We as police will present all information before court as soon as the investigation is finalised and cannot at this stage communicate sensitive details through the media that can hamper our investigation. There won’t be any further comment,” spokesperson colonel Adele Myburgh wrote.
Disturbingly, the department of correctional services appeared to be equally in the dark about Muyambo’s latest arrest and escape.
“The two escapes are still at large and the investigation did point to security breaches. The hunt is still on,” correctional services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said.
He declined to engage further, or provide specific details uncovered by his department’s investigation. “You are indirectly telling us that we must give you the investigation report,” he said.
“Heads must roll,” said a former police colonel, who requested to remain anonymous.
“This was not supposed to happen, and warrants a serious investigation. On the strength of all the facts, additional preventive security measures should have been placed around Muyambo.
“The minute his fingerprints were matched on Afis, his entire criminal history would have been available. The investigating officer should have immediately notified the station commander where Muyambo was held, and updated his docket with the latest information.
“Muyambo’s status should then have been elevated to that of a recaptured, escaped prisoner and he should have been placed in leg irons, and escorted to the nearest [correction services] facility. This clearly didn’t happen,” the former colonel added.
The former senior cop noted that detainees are supposed to be handcuffed to each other when transported to court, with the cuffs removed only when they entered the courtroom, adding: “Dangerous and high-risk suspects should be shackled in leg irons. Again, this clearly didn’t happen.”
Although the specifics of the investigation are immeasurably in the public interest, it remains highly unlikely the outcome will be disclosed publicly, or that the SAPS will air its dirty laundry in the light of day.
Police failures demand urgent reform
To be effective, joint inter-agency police and prison communication strategies need to ensure that photographs and profiles of wanted suspects and prison escapees are regularly shared and circulated through bulletins and news flashes.
In South Africa, this appears not to be the case.
According to the government’s national crime prevention strategy, regional development strategy that aims to reduce the huge disparities in the identification system, as well as tighter co-operation and improved co-ordination between the government and intergovernmental agencies.
The existence of a functional system of citizen identification is an important, enabling condition for effective governance. It also provides an important underlying resource for regulation and law enforcement.
The effectiveness of the new ID system in crime-prevention applications requires both that service providers use the national ID system as a safety check, and that clear guidelines are developed to prevent abuse of the system from impinging on the rights of citizens.
Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, believes that South African Police Service (SAPS) failures demand
urgent reform before it’s too late.
“There is an urgent need for a functioning disciplinary system in the SAPS. In an organisation with guns and power — and a vital role in a young democracy —
there must be a way to maintain discipline and remove corrupt, ill-disciplined and underperforming officers,” Newham said.
“But the SAPS internal disciplinary system has largely collapsed. Internal disciplinary processes dropped 71% between 2012-13 and 2019-20.
“In half of the hearings, the case was withdrawn because witnesses failed to appear or evidence went missing. In only 7% of hearings do police officers get dismissed or suspended without pay,” he added.
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