Today's Labour News

Sowetan reports that the escape of two prisoners at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Friday has been blamed on inexperienced court orderlies and staff shortages.

Two murder suspects, Andile Ncanyelo and Njabulo Khumalo, who were due to appear at the court, allegedly overpowered court orderlies who were escorting them from a police truck into the holding cells. Their daring escape led to the court precinct being placed under lockdown as police teams searched for them in and outside the building.

Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubele said police were still hunting for the pair and that they had been due to appear in court on charges of murder. But court officers who were on duty on the day told Sowetan that 16 suspects, including the two who escaped, overpowered inexperienced court orderlies. Richard Mamabolo, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union said the problem was that the ratio of police officials to the inmates was low.

“At times you find that there is one official who is responsible for transporting five inmates to different courts in one city. This obviously poses a danger to officials,” Mambolo said.

He said he did not know the number of court orderlies currently placed at the high court but said each court was allocated a number of officials necessary to its needs.

One officer alleged one police officer was stabbed in the arm during the scuffle with the prisoners.

The officer further said that security measures did not appear to have been taken into account on Friday as he saw at least three officers attempting to lead the inmates into the holding cells.

“A total of 16 of them overpowered the police officers who were taking them into the cells. The officers are new and have no experience. They look like they were reservists or came here straight from college,” the officer said.

“On average you find at least four police vehicles escorting a truck of inmates. On Friday there was only one vehicle and I saw only three officers at the time taking inmates into the cells,” the official said. Another official alleged there had been a severe shortage of court orderlies, which had resulted in suspects trying to escape frequently.

“The police are at fault for this escape. These kids don’t know what they are doing. There has been a request sent to the police for more staff to be brought but they do not seem to entertain this request,” said the official.

Makhubele said police had not received a request to beef up security at the high court. “We are not aware of any requests made,” he said.

Makhubele said the pair had not yet been rearrested. Meanwhile, investigations into their escape continues.

This is the second time prisoners have es1aped from the same court in less than two months. Mongezi Mcunukelwa and Sbonelo Nkosingiphe Thwala escaped from the court in December. Mcunukelwa was rearrested six days later and was slapped with two life sentences for the deaths of Mpho Richard Morabe and Mokete Ben Moloi, while murder-accused Thwala remains at large. Makhubele said Ncanyelo was due to appear in connection with a murder he allegedly committed in Randfontein on the west rand in 2017, while Khumalo was to appear for a murder charge opened in Kliptown, Soweto, last year. Friday’s court roll revealed that Ncanyelo was scheduled to appear alongside two other accused for sentencing.

• The original of this report by Tankiso Makhetha appeared on page 5 of Sowetan of 4 February 2019

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