Six prisoners who escaped from Pollsmoor Prison’s Medium B section on Sunday night have been arrested again.
The last to be re-arrested, Sephenati Ntantiso, 20, who is serving time for rape was nabbed at about 3pm on Tuesday (March 13).
He was regarded as dangerous and Pollsmoor’s Simphiwe Xako had warned that members of the public should not try to engage Ntantiso but to report to the nearest police station if he is spotted.
The men, who have all been sentenced, fled after removing bars with a piece of metal they obtained by breaking one of their beds that was welded to the floor.
They then jumped from the window and scaled two fences and escaped. One of the fences was not electrified as it had recently been installed. The six men shared a cell with 26 other prisoners. Officials discovered they were missing one hour after they had escaped and reported it to Kirstenhof police.
The six who escaped – Mirvan Witbooi, Emile Lindinders, Courtline Oliver, Siphenathi Ntantiso, Curtley None and Gershwin Mol – are aged between 21 and 25 years.
Mr Xako said two of the prisoners had committed serious crimes and the others were serving for minor incidents including not appearing in court for bail applications, housebreaking and not paying bail.
The prisoners will now appear before a judge who will decide on a new sentence relating to the attempted breakout from prison.
Pollsmoor spokesperson Lewies Davids said they would like to thanks detectives, flying squad, SAPS, Metro police and the Department of Correctional Services emergency support team who worked tirelessly throughout the night to ensure the rearrests of the prisoners.
He also thanked the media and those who had used social media to spread the word and thereby get the prisoners back behind
bars.
“The information we received from the public was valuable,” said Mr Davids, adding that officials were working to improve the facility where the prison-
ers were held and an internal
investigation has also been launched.