Cape town: The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has confirmed that an inmate who escaped from the Allandale Correctional Centre in the Western Cape has died in an apparent suicide. The offender, identified as Graine Martin, escaped from custody on Tuesday while working as part of the facility’s Agricultural Programme. He was serving a 12-year sentence for three counts of assault and theft, after being sentenced on 29 August 2023. Following an intensive search operation involving SAPS and members of the community, the escapee was found deceased. Preliminary observations indicate that he took his own life through hanging, the department said.
According to South African Government News Agency, a police report has been opened with the SAPS, with an inquest expected to be conducted in line with applicable procedures. A full-scale investigation is to be instituted to determine the circumstances surrounding the escape and subsequent death of the offender, the department stated.
Meanwhile, the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services has called for the immediate termination of the government’s contract with the private security service G4S, which manages the Mangaung Correctional Centre. This follows a briefing from DCS on unnatural inmate deaths, with specific reference to Mangaung, Goodwood, and Oudtshoorn correctional centres. Committee chairperson Kgomotso Anthea Ramolobeng accused G4S of acting as a law unto themselves, highlighting that the committee heard G4S only provided a report last week on the unnatural death of an inmate that occurred in March 2025, in Mangaung.
According to the statement, in March this year, an inmate at Mangaung died following a search operation in which offenders were allegedly assaulted and tortured. The inmate, who was an asthma patient, sustained severe injuries, including blunt force trauma from tonfas and complications from pepper spray exposure, and died the following day. The committee heard that the contractor presented pre-drafted statements to officials to sign off to ensure their versions aligned. Officials were allegedly also advised to assault the inmate on his body and not the face to hide the marks.
The committee further heard that throughout the investigation into the incident, G4S and its employees sought to conceal the truth and obscure the investigation. This is viewed in a serious light as it is tantamount to defeating the ends of justice. G4S’s refusal to provide reports about the March incident to DCS and only complied on 4 September, which amounts to refusing to take responsibility, Ramolobeng said in a statement.
The centre gained infamy following the escape and subsequent re-arrest of convicted rapist and murderer, Thabo Bester, in 2022 and 2023.