Warders in escape case refused bail
By Lew Elias
Source Dispatch
EAST LONDON - Two warders alleged to have aided three dangerous prisoners escape from East London prison were yesterday refused bail by a magistrate here.
Magistrate Nazeem Joemath said that corruption was a cancer that was of such concern to the authorities that task teams and commissions had been set up to root it out.
The warders, Bantwini Bhovu and Cyprian Matshaya, are facing charges of corruption, aiding a prison escape, attempted murder and hijacking.
It is alleged they were involved in the escape from East London prison of three dangerous awaiting trial prisoners Desmond Nompumza, Nonelelo Kwinti and Daniel Nqwiliso on August 5.
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The men escaped through a hole in the fence near the West Bank High School after allegedly obtaining a firearm and a cellphone from the warders before they broke out of the prison.
Ndaba Mduna, the head of the prison's Medium B section where the two men worked and from where the escape was made, said the accused were being marked absent even though the authorities knew where they were. As a consequence they were not being paid for the time they were spending in jail.
If they were to have been suspended while an investigation into their conduct was being carried out it most probably would have been on full pay.
Although the men were regarded as awaiting trial prisoners, they were being held in single cells at the prison's Medium A section for convicted criminals.
This was being done for their own safety, but it meant that other dangerous criminals had to be kept in the general population or moved to other secure prisons, Mduna told the court yesterday.
Joemath said though there was little likelihood that the men would interfere with the investigation or the witnesses, the people in the neighbourhood around the prison had lost faith in the judicial system and had been alarmed at the break out.
These people, he said, had to have their faith in the judicial system restored and it would serve the public and justice better if the men remained in custody until their next appearance on September 21.
One of the escapees, Nqwiliso, was recaptured in Johannesburg but Nompumza and Kwinti are still on the run.
