AN Mpumalanga convict who shot and killed a prison warder and escaped last Friday may have been given the gun by a girlfriend. Witbank police are trying to trace the woman who was seen speaking to escapee Francois Johannes Bloem (36) outside the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Bloem then got into a car with three Witbank Correctional Services warders. Bloem asked the warders to stop the car so he could urinate, but then shot and killed Steven Masombuka (32) who accompanied him. Masombuka’s colleagues, who were unarmed and had remained in the car, fled on foot. Nkoana said Bloem’s hands and feet were shackled, but he managed to drive the state car towards Delmas. The car, a Mazda 323, was found abandoned in Benoni, on the East Rand, on Sunday. – African Eye News Service