Technician hands himself over in regard to Bester escape, MPs told
• Integritron security employee suspected of tampering with recording system and facilitating prison break
Parliamentary Correspondent
The technician who was responsible for ensuring that the recording system at the Mangaung prison was in working order failed a polygraph test and has handed himself over to the police.
The system was not operational at the time that convicted serial rapist and murderer Thabo Bester escaped from the prison on the morning of May 3 2022. It came back on after the escape.
Dylan Williams, internal legal adviser of Integritron, the security company that maintains the security system at the prison, gave this information to parliament’s justice and correctional services committee on Wednesday.
The technician was seen on camera entering the control room on the night before the escape. Shortly afterwards the system stopped showing any footage. He only underwent a polygraph test about 10 months after the escape.
It was probable, Williams said, that the technician who was suspended at the beginning of April tampered with cables in the control room, causing the system to go down. Integritron has recommended a system upgrade at the prison as the existing one is outdated.
The regional commercial director of G4S, Cobus Groenewoud, as well as prison head Joseph Monyante and the head of the prison’s audit and risk committee, Gert Beyleveld, had to defend themselves against a barrage of questions by MPs.
Bester, a convicted serial rapist, made his escape from the prison dressed as a warder. A corpse was smuggled into his prison cell and burnt beyond recognition. However it was discovered the body was not his.
Bester lived a lavish lifestyle with his partner, Nandipha Magudumana, who is alleged to have helped his escape. The couple fled SA after their cover was blown, but were arrested in Tanzania on Friday.
Plans are afoot to bring the couple and a Mozambican national alleged to have helped them run from the law back to SA for trial.
G4S’s contract to run the prison on behalf of the department of correctional services has been forced into the spotlight since Bester’s escape, but Groenewoud pointed out that apart from this escape, there had been only two other escapes from Mangaung since 2003 out of 515 escapes from SA prisons in the past decade. The correctional centre is secure, he said.
MPs were not impressed with the answers given, with ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng saying that the G4S report is a “whitewash”.
DA justice spokesperson Glynnis Breytenbach agreed, saying that the prison representatives refuse to accept responsibility for the systemic failures at the prison, including the failure to conduct lifestyle audits on employees who were in contact with convicted criminals, some of whom are known for corruption.
ANC MP Xola Nqola accused the G4S representatives of “dishonesty” and of deliberately misleading parliament.
ACDP MP Steve Swart suggested that the reason G4S persisted in its view that the death of “Bester” was a suicide was that it stood to lose just less than R1m for his escape.
Monyante pointed out that a similar penalty was imposed for a suicide due to negligence.
Groenewoud insisted that given the track record of G4S in managing the prison for the past 22 years there was no justification for the contract for the operation of the prison with the department of correctional services to be terminated as suggested by ANC MP Qubudile Dyantyi.
The MPs also asked why the CCTV system failed in the area around Bester’s cell over the period of the escape; why Bester was allowed to have a computer and cellphone in his cell; why he was moved to cell 35, which was near an emergency exit; and why an unauthorised vehicle was allowed to enter the prison without being checked.
Groenewoud insisted that action was taken against those who had failed to follow standard operating procedures and policy. Three staff members were suspended and dismissed, two of whom operated the control centre. The on-site supervisor on night shift who was arrested last week was also dismissed.
“It’s harsh to say that we did nothing,” he said. “We investigated those under our control.” He said the incident had been handled according to G4S’s contractual requirements.
Action was taken against seven others who failed to check a TV cabinet that was brought into the prison just before Bester’s escape (with a suspected dead body inside it); failed to monitor this failure; helped move the box into the workroom and failed to check Bester’s belongings when he was moved into the segregated cell at his request on the grounds that his life was in danger.