Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola says they are implementing a number of measures in the criminal justice system to prevent an escape similar to the one by Thabo Bester.
Lamola said they have implemented the integrated justice system that would link correctional services with the police and home affairs departments.
This would enable them to easily identify any person wanted in the system.
Bester escaped from Mangaung prison in May last year and the body of Katlego Bereng was used as a decoy.
Bester is currently on trial with Dr Nandipha Magudamana and 10 other people.
He was already serving a sentence of life imprisonment for rape and murder when he escaped.
Lamola, who was replying to a parliamentary question from ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng, said they have taken measures to monitor those within the criminal justice system.
He said the Department of Home Affairs has upgraded its system into an auto biometric information system.
This system has various features including facial recognition, fingerprint search and unique person identifier.
Through this system they are able to locate where the person is held.
“The IJS (Integrated Justice System) program has also completed the development of the Person Identification and Verification Application (PIVA) which provides a solution for IJS departments to verify the identity of an individual using their fingerprints which are checked against the Department of Home Affairs records. Person Identification and Verification Application provides a solution for IJS departments to verify the identity of an individual using their fingerprints which are checked against the Department of Home Affairs records. Identity verification is a common requirement across all IJS member departments, and the development of this application was a combined effort.
“The SAPS is the CJS entry point and was the first department to implement PIVA in 2017. This solution has been rolled out to 1069 out of 1156 (92%) police stations across nine provinces. In the last financial year, the solution successfully verified the identity of 203 138 persons, of which 60 981 (30%) had previous SAPS records, and 5371 (2.6%) were identified as wanted persons,” said Lamola.
In addition, the police are completing an integrated booking system.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
IOL