The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is on the hunt for two inmates who escaped from the Ngqeleni Correctional Centre in the Eastern Cape on Thursday.
DCS spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, said Siyabulela Khohliso and Athini Mzingelwa made a duck for it from the facility’s sports field on Freedom Day.
Nxumalo said Khohliso and Mzingelwa were serving time for rape with Khohliso serving a 10-year sentence and Mzingelwa is serving an eight-year sentence.
“The two escaped at about 3.30pm from the sports field. Additional resources have been deployed in support of the Emergency Support Team of Correctional Services together with police, to hunt down the two inmates,” Nxumalo said.
He said members of the public are urged to contact the nearest police station if they come into contact with either escapee.
In October, seven inmates escaped from the Grahamstown Correctional Facility, in Makhanda, also in the Eastern Cape. While the department declined to reveal how the men escaped, they said the men were remand detainees facing charges of rhino poaching.
Two months before, two awaiting-trial prisoners escaped from police custody in Wolmaransstad in the North West. Gomolemo Chacha, 24, and Ditshebi Eric Molaetsi, 28, with six other awaiting-trial prisoners, overpowered a police officer at the Wolmaransstad police station holding cells. They took the keys from the police officer. At the time, they faced charges of murder, domestic violence, armed robbery and burglary.
IOL