A prison official is in a critical condition after being shot in a failed escape bid from Zonderwater prison on Sunday.
”Dirk Thiart is fighting for his life,” Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said on Monday.
Thiart is being treated at Montana hospital. Only family members were allowed to visit him.
”I have met with the family — Dirk’s wife, Elaine, who also works with us at Zonderwater, and their two children. They are all receiving counselling,” Balfour said.
Five prisoners — Dennis Ngobese (41), Bright Padi (58), Emmanuel Tshilingala (31), Michael Khumalo (35) and Classmed Lekota (30) — took five officials hostage at the prison’s hospital wing on Sunday in a stand-off that lasted from about 11.15am until 6pm.
The officials taken hostage were Thiart, Mpho Masimola (33), Sister Marcel Naude (33), Sister Grace Sekgabutla (47) and Goodman Mthimkhulu.
Balfour said the men demanded two R-5 rifles, a car with tinted windows and safe passage from the prison, without police following them.
Police had negotiated to the best of their abilities to avoid the deaths of prison officials or inmates.
Lekota, however was shot dead by members of a police task team and Ngobese was wounded. The four surviving inmates are being held at C-Max prison in Pretoria.
The men were serving a variety of lengthy sentences for murder, armed robbery and possession of arms and ammunition.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) expressed concern about security in prisons. The attempted escape served to confirm that a shortage of prison staff would lead to such incidents, Popcru said.
Balfour said staffing has nothing to do with incidents of bribery that lead to guns being made available to prisoners.
”Breaching security and taking what the person has bribed you with has nothing to do with how many people were on duty, because guns kill,” the minister said.
”I am sending out a strong warning to any correctional-services official or any member of the public who colludes to aid with any of the security breaches at the corrections centres.”
He commended the work of the police task team that handled the negotiations and the final rescue of the officials.
”I would like to congratulate the work of the South African Police Service members of the task team that operated yesterday [Sunday].
”They did not panic when things seemed to be going wrong. They handled things very well.”
Balfour said the four men will face the full might of the law, with a criminal investigation being carried out by police as well as a high-level departmental investigation under way.
”The only way to go is to send them to a facility where they will not have any contact with anybody, not even a family member, because they are not prepared to change.” — Sapa