CCTV shows cop helping prisoner escape
CCTV footage implicated a police constable in the escape of Kagiso Ledwaba, one of the accused in the Uwe Gemballa murder.
|||Johannesburg - A court orderly was arrested on Thursday for helping dangerous criminal Kagiso Ledwaba escape from the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court earlier this week.
Sources close to the investigation told The Star the anti-corruption task team viewed CCTV footage of the escape and saw a police constable, who is an orderly at the court, placing a bag where Ledwaba could find it.
In the bag was a weapon, which he used to get out of the court.
The footage showed the constable, in his police uniform, placing the bag between two cars in the staff parking lot of the court. He then took out his cellphone and is seen calling someone.
The footage also shows Ledwaba waiting for all the other prisoners to get out of the police truck ahead of him. He trails at the back and quickly ducks between the two cars to retrieve the bag which the constable allegedly left for him.
When questioned, the constable allegedly told the task team that the person he called was Ledwaba, who had a cellphone despite being on his way to court in a prison van.
Ledwaba is known to be a very dangerous criminal who is connected to convicted criminal Radovan Krejcir. He had been convicted of the murder of German sports car specialist Uwe Gemballa.
Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who was involved in investigating the Gemballa murder, said he found it untenable that corruption in the prisons and police service was so bad that dangerous criminals like this were allowed to escape.
He asked how it was possible that prisoners were allowed to have a cellphone, with which they were able to plan their escape. “This is a demonstration of how corrupt the criminal justice system is,” O’Sullivan said.
“It’s well known that Kagiso is a dangerous person. He doesn’t think twice about killing someone. He now has two guns. Soon he will hijack or murder someone to make money. Every crime he now commits, the government will be responsible for.”
Police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed to The Star on Thursday that the orderly had been arrested.
“We arrested him on allegations that he aided the escape of a convicted criminal.”
Naidoo couldn’t say if there was a possibility of more arrests.
angelique.serrao@inl.co.za
The Star