President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised heads will roll over the escape of Thabo Bester after the alleged involvement of a number of officials.
Ramaphosa also said they wanted to clean up the criminal justice system and root out all corrupt elements.
Bester, Nandipha Magudumana and a Mozambican national are currently being held in custody in Tanzania, with officials trying to get them back to stand trial.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Wednesday said it was in the interest of justice that Bester was brought back to face his charges for alleged crimes.
He said while the incident was an embarrassment to the government, the law enforcement agencies were able to work around the clock and recapture him.
It was important that those who were behind his escape from lawful custody were held accountable, said Magwenya.
He said the president was certain that the government had worked hard to rebuild the criminal justice system.
But the law will have to take its course, and those who are implicated in the crimes committed by Bester should be held accountable.
“While embarrassing as it is, what is encouraging is that we still have a system that is robust enough to respond rapidly to such cases. We have a system that can deliver quickly, as we witnessed with the arrests that have been made, and there will be accountability because investigations are ongoing, and those investigations will result in more arrests and will result in more people being held accountable,” said Magwenya.
“In that regard, the president is disturbed that such an incident happened but is equally encouraged that our law enforcement agencies are able to respond rapidly to such cases. We do have to, on an ongoing basis, clean up our system, and it talks to the work underway in terms of rebuilding the capability of the state at all levels and ensuring that we clean out corrupt elements within our law enforcement ranks,” said Magwenya.
He added that they could not tell when Bester and his accomplices would be brought back from Tanzania as officials on both sides are busy on the matter.
Tanzania has its own legal system that would need to be followed in bringing back the fugitive from justice.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa he felt this incident should not have been allowed to happen.
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