Following the dramatic escape of seven convicted criminals from the Kutama Sinthumule Maximum Security Prison last year, three of those recaptured appeared in court on Monday.
The 28-year-old Justice Makamo, 37-year-old Chris Faku, and 26-year-old Ntshengedzeni Manukha were convicted of escaping and each was sentenced to five years' direct imprisonment in addition to their original sentences.
The sixth of the escapees, the 34-year-old Phathutshedzo Nemadodzi, who had been serving a sentence for murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, was re-arrested on 20 June, while the search is still on for the seventh, the 30-year-old Raphael Nyota, also convicted of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, from Zimbabwe.
The other two escapees, the 32-year-old Jabulani Isaac Mahlanga from Pretoria and the 30-year-old Ntshavheni Thomas Munyai from Riverside, pleaded guilty immediately after their apprehension and re-arrest, and admitted that they had taken advantage of the strike by prison warders taking place at that time. Mahlanga said that when they had seen some prisoners going through an open gate and through office windows, he had followed them out. They each received four years jail time added to their current sentences.
The seven prisoners escaped from the maximum security facility, which houses some of the country's most dangerous convicts, on 27 October last year by taking advantage of a chaotic prison riot in which three prison buildings were damaged, and which had erupted as result of protest action by prison wardens.
Limpopo provincial police spokesperson Col Moatshe Ngoepe urged the public last week to help track down Nyota. Anyone with information that can lead to his re-arrest can contact Colonel Nyelisani Mabatha at 082 565 8171, the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111, the Crime Line SMS at 32211 or their nearest police station.