Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee next week to explain how a high-profile prisoner escaped from the country’s most secure prison.
Members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services and of the National Council of Provinces Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs inspected the C-Max prison in Pretoria on Thursday.
Asked if they were satisfied that the facility was secure enough to keep the country’s most dangerous prisoners, Dennis Bloem, chairperson of the portfolio committee, said it is an issue they want to take up with Balfour.
”That is exactly what we want to raise, the security issues that we have noticed … [Those are] some of the questions that we want to raise with the minister,” Bloem said.
Thursday’s inspection came before Balfour is due to testify before a joint sitting of the committees in Parliament next Tuesday to explain how Annanias Mathe, a high-profile prisoner, escaped in November last year.
Mathe, who faces more than 50 charges, including murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery, was re-arrested in December.
At the time he was thought to have stripped and covered his entire body with petroleum jelly to climb out of a window measuring 20cm by 60cm.
Bloem said the parliamentarians saw the route Mathe allegedly used, but this had only left them with more questions.
”The officials took us to each every section, even on top of the roof where Mathe allegedly escaped — I’m using the words ‘allegedly escaped’,” he said.
Kgoshi Mathupa Mokwena, chairperson of the select committee, said the MPs also had an opportunity to talk to Mathe and that he is doing ”fine”.
”He is in a normal cell but a cell which is well guarded,” Mokwena said.
Balfour will brief the committee on an investigation into Mathe’s escape and recommendations for improving security.
Meanwhile, Mathe is scheduled to appear in the Regional Court in Johannesburg on Friday. — Sapa