Ashraf Hendricks Mandatory minimum sentences have contributed to prisons being overcrowded, argues Judge Edwin Cameron.
Ashraf Hendricks Mandatory minimum sentences have contributed to prisons being overcrowded, argues Judge Edwin Cameron.
Suspected car thieves fleeing police in South Africa drove straight into the grounds of the notorious maximum-security Pollsmore prison that once held Nelson Mandela, police said Monday.
A police patrol spotted the car on Sunday as it was being driven in the Tokai suburb of Cape Town after having been reported stolen from the affluent area of Hout Bay.
As police gave chase the four “fled into Pollsmoor prison”, city police spokesman Wayne Dyason told AFP.
“South Africa’s dumbest criminals”
The suspects – whom the local media have dubbed the country’s “dumbest criminals” – were arrested in the prison grounds.
According to a prison official, the men accessed the complex through an entrance that leads to the wardens’ residential area and then abandoned the car before heading off on foot.
“They entered through the gate where the officers live, and that is where they were caught,” Correctional Services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo told AFP.
Where is Pollsmore Prison?
Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison holds some of the country’s most notorious criminals and gangs. It resides in Tokai, a suburb of the Western Cape 20 kilometres away from the Mother City.
Earlier this year, six convicts achieved the opposite result by breaking out of the jail. The escape itself was daring to say the least. A spokesperson confirmed the Pollsmore Prison six removed the bars on their cells by using metal from their beds.
From there, they used the old “making ropes out of blankets” trick to lower themselves from the windows onto solid ground. The group then had to contend with an eight-metre wall, which they all successfully scaled.
Former president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor in 1982 after serving 18 years at Robben Island. He was transferred to Victor Verster prison in 1988, before being released in 1990.
Last year, an average 146 cars or motorcycles were stolen across South Africa each day, according to police figures.
