An official of the Department of Correctional Services has been arrested in connection with the deaths of Pretoria’s C-Max prison head, a warder and two inmates in a failed escape bid on Sunday.
The official, who was employed at the maximum-security jail, was arrested on Monday ”in connection with the break of security and the foiled escape attempt”, the department said in a statement on Tuesday.
”The suspect is expected to appear in court in due course.”
Police spokesperson Superintendent Morne van Wyk confirmed a person has been arrested for questioning. Investigators have 48 hours — until Wednesday afternoon — to charge or release the man. If charged, he will probably appear in court on Thursday.
Van Wyk said two other men arrested outside the prison a few hours after Sunday’s escape attempt were released on Tuesday after being questioned.
The two were apprehended in the parking area by dozens of armed police and prison officials wearing bullet-proof vests. They were seen being bundled into a police van and driven off the premises.
Initial accounts indicated that a prisoner had obtained a firearm and used it to kill another inmate, prison head Sam Gomba (45) and warder Dan Ndinisa (41), before turning the gun on himself on Sunday morning.
But clarity on what exactly transpired has not yet been forthcoming from the department.
According to unconfirmed accounts, a female visitor smuggled a firearm into the prison and handed it to an inmate. But the department has not been able to confirm or deny this version.
The dead inmates have been identified Gift Mpho Kganyago (30) and Ronny Menyatso.
Kganyago was serving a sentence for robbery with aggravating circumstances, and Menyatso for murder, theft, attempted murder, possession of an illegal firearm and escaping from custody.
A memorial service for Gomba and Ndinisa is to be held at the Pretoria prison rugby field on Thursday morning.
On Monday, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said he was ”seriously considering” appointing a task team to probe the incident.
C-Max is a maximum-security facility designed to hold violent and disruptive prisoners classified as dangerous. Its inmates include apartheid-era murderer Eugene de Kock, serial killer and rapist Moses Sithole, and the alleged rightwingers charged in the Boeremag treason trial with plotting to overthrow the government. — Sapa