Prison escape
EC authorities investigating the escape of 8 prisoners from holding cells
Eight awaiting trial prisoners made a run for it over the weekend. They are wanted for various serious crimes including murder and rape.
Sixty-six of the 69 inmates that escaped from the facility on Friday have been rearrested, and an emergency support team has been deployed to monitor the situation at the facility.
Minister Lamola to visit Malmesbury prison after brazen escape of 69 inmates
According to the Correctional Services Department, officials were providing lunch to the inmates when they were overpowered by the offenders who then managed to escape.
Several videos believed to be of the escape, and the subsequent police chase, have been shared on social media.
It's understood the four fugitives were awaiting trial for crimes that include robbery and housebreaking when they made their getaway from the facility.
The men, who are serving time for robbery and attempted robbery, have been described as dangerous.
Convicted murder Mongezi Mcunukelwa was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday.
The two men got away on Wednesday afternoon ahead of their High Court appearance on charges of murder.
The 30-year-old inmate from Zimbabwe was nabbed around the Ivory Park taxi rank in Gauteng during an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Redoine Faid was serving a long-term sentence at a prison south of Paris for armed robbery and the murder of a policewoman in 2010 after a heist that went wrong.
Seven of the 16 escapees who fled from the Johannesburg Correctional Centre in April have been re-arrested, seven are still on the run and two other were killed.
Speaking to Parliament’s justice committee ahead of his department’s budget briefing, Justice Minister Michael Masutha also blamed the shortage of funds and the impact that this has had on staffing.
Parliament's Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee says it is extremely concerned because in some cases, offenders serving long sentences for serious crimes have escaped, putting innocent people's lives at risk.
Two of the 16 detainees who escaped from the Johannesburg Correctional Centre on Monday were found in KwaZulu-Natal the next day.
Police say a fifth escapee was re-arrested moments after the brazen getaway outside the police station yard.
Twenty men escaped from a police truck that was transporting them to the Johannesburg Correctional Centre from the local magistrates court this week.
A police truck was on its way back to the Johannesburg Correctional Centre from the Johannesburg magistrates court when the group of 20 prisoners escaped during an ambush near the Southgate train station.
The men broke free after the vehicle they were travelling in was ambushed.