Picture: Lulama Zenzile
Community activists have welcomed the Correctional Services Minister’s intervention in the transfer of 28s-prison gang leader, George “Geweld” Thomas.
The Cape Crime Crisis Coalition had alerted the Minister of the notorious gangster’s transfer, following a report by Netwerk24 journalist, Maygene de Wee last week.
According to the report, Geweld had secretly been moved from Embongweni C-Max prison in Kwazulu-Natal, to Helderstroom Correctional Facility in the Western Cape.
The move had sparked serious concerns of a flare up of, already, uncontrollable gang violence across the Cape.
Geweld was convicted and sentenced in 2015, along with more than a dozen accomplices.
He’d been handed seven life terms as well as a further 175 years – for his role in a series of horrific and violent crimes, including the murders of six State witnesses during the course of the trial.
Because of his far reach, it was decided to send him to a prison outside of the Western Cape.
It is for this reason that fears had heightened following word of his transfer.
Correctional Services Minister, Pieter Groenewald has, since, instructed his Department to probe the veiled transfer.
Thomas has been redirected to Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria.
Spokesperson for the Cape Crime Crisis Coalition, Llewellyn MacMaster, is happy that the voice of the community has been heard.
