Prison warders gave prior warning of an escape in which some of their colleagues were involved, writes Ann Eveleth
T HREE prisoners awaiting trial for taxi violence escaped from prison near Durban on Sunday with inside help.nnThe warders who allegedly helped the men get out of Westville Prison were also linked to the taxi industry, according to colleagues who, a month earlier, predicted the escape.
Escapees Sandile Mpanza and Sydney Sithole, together with a warder and an unidentified man, died in a hail of bullets in a gun- battle with members of Durban’s Murder and Robbery Unit near Inanda on Monday night.
Escaped prisoner Velaphi Madondo is still at large, and is believed to be hiding in Newcastle.
SAPS KwaZulu-Natal spokesman Captain Bongani Nzimande said it appeared that the dead warder, Sipho Skhosana, had been driving the vehicle carrying the two escapees and the unidentified man when they opened fire on an approaching Murder and Robbery Unit vehicle. Nzimande said the unit approached the “suspicious-looking vehicle” and returned fire, killing three occupants and wounding Skhosana, who died later in hospital.
Two Police and Prison’s Civil Rights Union (Popcru)-aligned prison warders who spoke to the Mail & Guardian this week on condition of anonymity said the deaths, and the escape, could have been prevented if police investigators had heeded their warning that Mpanza – who had already escaped once this year – would attempt another escape.
“There are a lot of cover-ups going on. We are trying to expose corruption at our workplace, but we are hitting brick walls,” said the warders.
The warders warned police investigators last month about Mpanza’s escape potential in a 15-page dossier detailing alleged corruption among prison officials. Naming three of the four officials they accuse of assisting this week’s escape in their submission related to Mpanza’s previous escape, the warders said Mpanza’s continued connection with a prison hospital official would pave the way for a second escape.
KwaZulu-Natal Correctional Services spokesman Andy Anderson said Mpanza, Sithole and Madondo escaped on Sunday using a 9mm pistol in their possession. A metallic-grey Jetta was waiting for them. He refused to speculate on whether prison officials had assisted the escape.
The Popcru warders said the three prisoners had been in and out of meetings with the prison officials in the office of one of them between Thursday and Sunday. Mpanza not only had a 9mm pistol, but also had the keys to the getaway car. After holding up the guard at reception, the prisoners went out the side entrance into the garage where they encountered the hospital official. They told him to move aside.
He was said to be taking another prisoner to the hospital, but there was no reason for him to be there because the normal procedure was to call an ambulance which was followed by a guard in a state vehicle, the warders alleged.
The warders claimed the hospital official was a taxi owner with long-standing links to Mpanza and to the Inkatha Freedom Party: “He kept Mpanza in the hospital section even though he wasn’t sick. He keeps all the taxi and IFP-related prisoners there to provide easy access for IFP officials,” they said.
The warders said several IFP officials had visited prisoners there in the run-up to the July Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Committee hearings at the prison. While they claim IFP secretary general Ziba Jiyane and Correctional Services Minister Sipo Mzimela have both visited the prison once, they say “the most regular visitor is former KwaZulu Police captain Langalakhe Hlengwa”, who had attempted to persuade IFP members not to testify.
Hlengwa, a former member of the KwaZulu Bureau of Security and Intelligence (BSI), featured in the 1994 Transitional Executive Council report on hit-squads which alleged he had “been implicated in attempts to conceal, secure the release of or pay certain (persons involved in hit-squads)”, including the once feared hit man Jerry Mdanda, who died last year.
The Popcru-aligned warders said the political atmosphere around the prison hospital was just the latest in a string of complaints involving the hospital official and several other prison officials.
The warders handed the dossier to national Special Investigations Unit Director Bushy Engelbrecht last month in an effort to force a probe into the prison hierarchy. Engelbrecht said he viewed the allegations as “extremely serious” and had handed the matter to his superiors who assigned the investigation to provincial police:
“I don’t know what has happened after that, except that I know the warders say they have become very frustrated with waiting for the investigation to get off the ground,” he said.
The warders say they were interviewed once by provincial police, but were told the investigation had been stopped.
KwaZulu-Natal acting CID head Eric Nkabinde said he had received the dossier this Tuesday, after taking over from his superior who had gone on leave: “I have appointed someone whom I trust to get to the bottom of this and I am waiting for a report from him,” he said.