Please find attached soundbite in English by Freddy Sonakile MPL.
- A repeat escapee allegedly cut through the burglar bars of a single cell at a maximum-security correctional centre.
- Eight officials face contemplated suspension, but accountability must extend beyond frontline staff to systemic failures.
- DA North West will conduct an oversight visit to Rooigrond and escalate its findings to the Minister of Correctional Services.
The Democratic Alliance is demanding answers after Edward Khomotso Madiba, a convicted offender serving a 20-year sentence, escaped from Rooigrond Maximum Correctional Centre near Mahikeng on Sunday.
According to the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Madiba was being held in the single-cell section while facing a further charge relating to a previous escape when he allegedly cut through the burglar-bar door of his cell and escaped from the facility. A manhunt is under way, and eight officials have been served with notices of contemplated suspension pending the outcome of the investigation.
This is not a routine prison escape.
A maximum-security correctional centre should be one of the most secure environments in the country. A repeat escapee being held in a single cell should have been subject to heightened security measures. Yet he allegedly cut his way through the cell door and walked out.
We welcome the full-scale investigation announced by DCS, but it must establish more than who was on duty when the escape happened.
It must determine whether deteriorating infrastructure, inadequate security equipment, staffing shortages, poor maintenance, failures in supervision or management decisions contributed to the breach.
If frontline officials failed in their duties, they must be held accountable. But if the investigation reveals systemic failures that made an escape possible, accountability must reach those responsible for the management, maintenance and security of the facility.
This is particularly concerning given the South African Human Rights Commission’s July 2026 investigation into police stations and correctional centres in the North West, which raised broader concerns about the condition and functioning of these state facilities.
We will therefore not allow this incident to be treated as an isolated failure by individual officials.
As DA North West Provincial Leader, I will invite a DA Member of Parliament responsible for correctional services oversight to join me on an oversight visit to Rooigrond Maximum Correctional Centre in the coming week.
The visit will assess the physical condition of the facility, security infrastructure, staffing and operational challenges, with the findings to be escalated through DA representatives in the National Assembly to the Minister of Correctional Services.
There are also critical questions that DCS must answer:
- What additional security measures were implemented after Madiba’s previous escape?
- How was his risk profile assessed after he was recaptured?
- How was he able to access or use equipment capable of cutting through a cell door?
- Were the condition of the cell and its security infrastructure previously reported?
- Were staffing and security resources at Rooigrond adequate?
- Who was responsible for ensuring that the facility remained secure and fit for purpose?
South Africans should not have to wonder whether convicted dangerous offenders can simply cut their way out of maximum-security prisons.
The immediate priority must be to apprehend Madiba and return him to custody. But once that happens, the country also deserves to know how this was possible in the first place — and who must answer for it.
We will pursue those answers through every available oversight mechanism.
Correctional facilities exist to protect the public and keep convicted offenders securely in custody. When the walls, doors, security systems or management of those facilities fail, the public is put at risk.
The Minister of Correctional Services must ensure that Rooigrond and correctional facilities across the North West are secure, properly maintained and adequately equipped to do the job they are entrusted to do.