Manager who lost control of Mangaung prison unveiled

Johan Theron, who has been in the prison management system for 44 years, was yesterday exposed as the man who had completely lost control of the shambolic Mangaung jail, from which murderer and rapist Thabo Bester escaped last year.

Theron, who previously worked for the department of correctional services for 21 years from 1979, joined the Mangaung facility in November 2000 and subsequently took charge as managing director in 2015.

Under his watch, the prison became notorious for human rights violations, the torture of inmates, a series of security breaches, and the most daring and meticulously planned escape in post-democratic SA.

It is also under his watch that G4S – the UK multinational firm contracted to run the prison – maintains, despite overwhelming evidence pointing otherwise, that Bester died in the prison’s fire in May last year.

This week Sowetan revealed that a wooden kist, believed to have been carrying a body, was driven into the prison, without being checked, hours before a fire broke out in Bester’s cell.

Yesterday, correctional services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale confirmed that an unknown vehicle carrying the body was allowed into the facility with no checks being done, one of many security breaches on that day.

Thobakgale said the head of the prison [Theron] had completely lost control of the prison and its security systems had become “paralysed”.

Theron and two other prison officials were removed yesterday and replaced with an acting manager, Patrick Ali Mashabathakga, who was appointed by the department to take control of the centre while the state does its own investigations.

Meanwhile, at least six prison guards have been fired or have resigned in the last six months for their alleged involvement in two escapes, including Bester’s.

The dismissals were kept under wraps until this week. None of them have been criminally investigated.

Two insiders have revealed that three of the guards resigned in December, after the escape of Chris Potgieter – who briefly skipped prison in December – six months after Bester’s escape.

Potgieter, who had been serving a lengthy sentence for armed robbery, was taken to Universitas Hospital on December 23, claiming to have gastro. According to correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, Potgieter was placed under the watch of three guards.

Insiders told Sowetan the three armed guards woke up in the early hours of the morning on the 24th and found out that Potgieter had “disappeared.” His chains were found in a hospital ward.

When questioned, the guards allegedly said they had been sleeping.

“The guards were forced to resign and no statements were taken from them. An investigation into Potgieter’s escape was not even done,” said the insider.

“The three of them (the guards) were told through their union representative that they only had two options – resign and keep the benefit of cashing out on you pension money and listing the company as reference when searching for other jobs, or be fired and lose all of that.”

Another insider said officials had also lied about when Potgieter escaped.

“He must have escaped the same day he arrived in the hospital on December 23, I remember because a team was sent out to the hospital to search for him in the early hours of the 24th after the guards noticed that he had escaped. Prison officials searched for him the whole week thereafter.

“It’s not true that they found him a day after his escape.”

Potgieter was rearrested on December 28, after – according to two insiders – he was spotted in Koffiefontein, a small town an-hour-and-a-half from Mangaung, by the same officer who had arrested him before, looking drunk and carrying a screwdriver and a hammer.

A police insider said upon spotting him, the cop called the prison to check if he was still in custody and was told the man had escaped.

He was then taken back to prison.

At the time, police said he was rearrested after a search by local police.

sibiyan@sowetan.co.za