DCS officials reviewing Pollsmoor Correctional Centre security protocols after prison break

CAPE TOWN - Correctional Services officials are reviewing security protocols at Pollsmoor Correctional Centre following a prison break. 

Yanga Wayithi was serving a six-month sentence for theft and trespassing when he fled from the prison grounds earlier this week. 

Correctional Services’s Singabakho Nxumalo said he was rearrested on Wednesday.

Nxumalo said that a full-scale investigation is underway.

"Appropriate measures will be taken against any lapses identified. What is also important to state is that security protocols at Pollsmoor are under review to prevent similar incidents in the future."

News of the escape came on the same day the Department of Correctional Services was before Parliament, claiming it had met all requirements set by the Public Protector to develop an escape prevention plan. 

The instruction, with a deadline of 2023, followed Thabo Bester’s escape from a Bloemfontein facility.