MPs tear into G4S directors over Thabo Bester prison escape
G4S directors on Wednesday gave answers to a Parliamentary joint committee regarding the escape.
G4S audit and risks director Gert Byleveld and Mangaung Correctional Centre director Joseph Monyante appear before the oversight committee on Justice and Correctional Services on 12 April 2023. Picture: YouTube
CAPE TOWN - Members of Parliament (MPs) have grilled G4S directors, calling into question the company’s version of events in the Thabo Bester prison escape.
The convicted murderer and rapist staged a brazen escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre by faking his own death in a cell fire in May 2022.
The centre is a privately-managed prison that is operated by G4S.
Bester was re-arrested along with his accomplice Dr Nandipha Magudumana in Tanzania at the weekend.
While G4S has denied any culpability in the escape, the company has confirmed serious security oversights leading to Bester’s escape.
G4S directors on Wednesday gave answers to a Parliamentary joint committee regarding the escape.
The company admitted that a television stand could have been used to smuggle a body into the prison as part of the escape plan, which angered MPs like the Democratic Alliance’s Glynnis Breytenbach.
"There’s the corpse substitution. Who is that person in the cell? Where did they come from? Did they come from inside your prison or else your headcount wouldn’t have matched. Did they come in from the outside, how? Did they walk in, were they murdered in the prison, did they come in dead? You can’t answer any of these questions. A year and a bit later you don’t know?"
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African National Congress MP Anthea Ramolobeng disputed some of the facts put forward by G4S saying the company was in breach of its contract with Correctional Services.
"They make mention that the fire broke at 4 am and based on our visit, when we went there and the footage that we saw, it says the fire broke out at 2:30 am."
The hearings are expected to continue, with more MPs questioning G4S before briefings from the justice and police ministers.
