Stefaans BrUmmer
THE Department of Correctional Services this week started an investigation into former security police captain and convicted murderer Michael Bellingan’s “walkabout” outside prison in May.
Bellingan, who is serving a 25-year sentence at Diepkloof Prison, near Soweto, was allegedly seen in Johannesburg’s plush Killarney Mall, in civilian clothes, on May 14. He killed his wife, Janine, in September 1991 after she threatened to expose how he had defrauded the National Union of Metalworkers in a police “dirty tricks” operation.
The Mail & Guardian published an account last week by a former acquaintance of Bellingan’s, who asked not to be named, of how she had seen Bellingan at Killarney Mall. She said there were no prison warders or police with him, but he was accompanied by a man she thought to be his trial advocate, Mannie Witz. Witz denied accompanying Bellingan.
Carl Niehaus, chair of Parliament’s Committee on Correctional Services, has asked prison authorities to look into the matter. Correctional Services liaison officer Rudy Potgieter this week confirmed that inspectors from the office of the Gauteng provincial commissioner are investigating.