A father’s grief as son, 5, is still missing after 24 days
CORRECTIONAL Services say they have foiled an apparent bid by Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir and two other prisoners to escape from the Zonderwater Correctional Centre, in Cullinan, east of Pretoria.
“Preliminary investigations reveal three inmates were involved,” deputy commissioner of communications Manelisi Wolela said yesterday.
Wolela said the raid was done by the emergency support teams from the correctional services department on Saturday.
According to a statement from correctional services: “A number of illegal items were discovered in different cells during the search operation conducted in the morning on Saturday.
“These illegal (devices) included cellphones, a knife, stun devices, correctional services officials uniform, cellphone chargers, as well as a firearm and ammunition.”
Wolela said investigations would reveal how inmates got the “illegal substances”.
Internal and external investigations were launched by the department and the police.
Krejcir is on trial in various courts for charges including kidnapping, murder, attempted murder and drug dealing, along with co-accused.
Meanwhile, the case against a man who allegedly serves as a hit man for Krejcir was postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.
Sakhile Victor Bhengu, 40, was charged with conspiracy to murder.
Police said he was part of an elaborate plot to kill several witnesses that were to testify in the Sam Essa murder case.
He was arrested in June by a special task team trying to close the net around Krejcir and his associates.
Essa, a Lebanese national, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Bedfordview in 2013.
Krejcir, Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda and Simphiwe Memela were arrested in connection with the killing.
They were already in custody in connection with conspiring to murder police colonel Nkosana Ximba and security expert Paul O’Sullivan.
Krejcir and other co-accused are also on trial in other courts for charges including kidnapping, murder, attempted murder and drug dealing. – ANA AFTER his wife, Asavela, passed away in February, Thina Mvango is hoping his fiveyear-old son – the only family he has left – returns home safely after going missing earlier this month.
Nido Mandivile Mvango disappeared from his home in Khayelitsha on September 5, and police have appealed to the public to come forward with any information about his whereabouts.
Mvango said he had returned home from his regular Saturday jog at 8am and was looking forward to preparing breakfast for his son. But little Nido was nowhere to be found. “I arrived home and the door was open. I started to panic because he was not home. I asked around the neighbourhood where he was because he left without eating.”
He said his neighbour told him that Nido had left with other children to play near a wetland in Green Point, Khayelitsha.
Wandisile Sipasi, 35, said he saw Nido waiting for a taxi with a woman.
“I was the last person to see him with the woman and could not help.
“I thought she was family of the boy because he was not crying.”
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that Nido was still missing and police were still investigating.