Prison and police officers are currently on a manhunt for three prisoners who escaped from Selibe Phikwe Prison on Sunday afternoon. Senior Superintendent Kabelo Gaseitsiwe at Botswana Prisons Headquarters, confirmed the incident to the Telegraph on Monday.
“Initially five prisoners escaped but we managed to arrest two on Sunday and early Monday morning. The prison officers made the arrests through the help of the public,” he said.
He said prisoners who are currently on the run are two Zimbabwean nationals Xolani Dube, serving a ten year sentence for rape and robbery, Tumelo Moyo remanded for robbery and a Motswana, Akanyang Molatlhegi who is serving 25 years in jail sentence for murder. He was however optimistic that they will arrest the escapees.
Meanwhile in a separate incident on Monday two other men classified as “dangerous” escaped from custody of prison wardens in Gaborone.
“What happened is that the prisoners approached the prison warder at the prison gate and told him that they were to be interrogated by another senior prison officer. All of a sudden the prisoners snatched the keys from the unsuspecting jail guard and a scuffle ensued. They managed to overpower him, unlocked the prison gate and escaped,” he said.
He said the prison officers managed to arrest Onkemetse Baseki who is serving a six months sentence for public nuisance and Boitumelo Makgasane who had been remanded for murder.
Gaseitsewe appealed to the members of the public to help them arrest the escapees and warned them to exercise caution as the prisoners are presumed dangerous.
In 2017, Botswana Prisons recorded the highest prison break when 18 other prisoners (15 Zimbabweans and 3 Batswana) escaped from the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants. According to Gaseitsewe they have still not arrested 9 of the escapees who are all Zimbabweans.
