DA exposes prison escape ‘cover-up’, Minister denies lies

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomed the re-arrest of escaped convict Mikyle Mentoor while accusing Department of Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald of misleading Parliament about the inmates’ whereabouts—a charge Groenewald firmly denied, shifting blame to provincial authorities for bureaucratic failures that enabled three violent offenders to vanish from Pollsmoor prison.

Three inmates serving sentences for murder, rape, or robbery disappeared after being temporarily remanded to Pollsmoor on unrelated assault charges.

While two have since been re-arrested—Xolani du Preez in April and Mentoor —a convicted rapist remains at large.

The DA exposed the escapes during an unannounced prison visit, contradicting Groenewald parliamentary assurance days earlier that all prisoners were accounted for.

DA justice spokesperson Nicholas Gotsell demanded urgent fixes to “dangerous accountability gaps,” revealing police never received formal escape alerts and relied on community tips to recapture Mentoor.

The party formally questioned why administrative errors prevented authorities from flagging the trio as sentenced criminals who should never have been released.

In a statement, Groenewald countered that a critical court order sentencing the men was mistakenly sent to a youth center under Western Cape Social Development—not his department—leaving Correctional Services unaware of their status.

Without subsequent detention warrants, he insisted staff legally couldn’t hold them.

The Minister urged lawmakers to instead question Social Development MEC Jaco Londt about the missing rapist whereabouts.

Two weeks after the scandal erupted, no resolution addresses systemic communication breakdowns between courts, police, and prisons.

The DA maintains its oversight forced action where official channels failed, calling the episode emblematic of South Africa’s crumbling justice infrastructure.