{"id":10884,"date":"2013-10-07T05:09:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T05:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10884"},"modified":"2013-10-07T05:09:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T05:09:48","slug":"black-serial-killer-mathe-nearly-breaks-out-of-his-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10884","title":{"rendered":"Black serial killer Mathe nearly breaks out of his cell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Annanias<\/a>
Annanias Mathe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Convicted criminal and serial escapee Annanias Mathe nearly broke out of the Ebongweni C-Max prison, near Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, the Sunday Tribune reported.<\/p>\n

According to the report, Mathe, who escaped from Johannesburg Central prison in January 2005 and Pretoria C-Max prison in 2006, used a hammer and chisel to break through the wall of his maximum security cell on the third floor. The report cited unnamed sources in the prison system.<\/p>\n

He reportedly worked at night for over four months, creating a 30cm-wide hole and used toothpaste and clothing as makeshift plaster to conceal his work.<\/p>\n

The break-out attempt was uncovered on Tuesday after a warder heard noises from Mathe’s cell.<\/p>\n

Mathe was sentenced to 54 years in prison in 2009 for rape, attempted murder, fraud, and armed robbery.<\/p>\n

Ebongweni C-Max houses 1440 inmates, cost R450 million to build, and has a spotless escape record, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The correctional services department’s chief deputy commissioner James Smalberger could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia, Annanias Mathe (sometimes reported as Ananias Mathe) is a notorious serial killer, serial rapist and armed robber from Mozambique who achieved further notoriety in 2006 by being the only person to have ever escaped from the maximum high-security C-Max Penitentiary in Pretoria, South Africa.<\/p>\n

Mathe was initially arrested on 51 counts of murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery in November 2006.<\/p>\n

Whilst being detained in the A6 ward of C-Max Penitentiary which houses dangerous and hardened criminals,<\/p>\n

Mathe managed to escape by smearing himself with petroleum jelly and sliding out of his cell window, measuring only 20 cm x 60 cm. This daring escape led the South African press to dub him ‘Houdini’.<\/p>\n

Mathe had escaped from police custody before, previously in April 2005.<\/p>\n

His latest escape prompted a nationwide manhunt, the events of which were closely monitored by local media. He was re-arrested on 4 December 2006 (about two weeks after his escape), when he hijacked a car in the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Craighall. Unknown to Mathe, the vehicle was fitted with a satellite tracking device, which led police and private security companies to Mathe after a chase which saw him being shot three times in the leg and buttocks.<\/p>\n

Mathe was found guilty on 64 of 71 charges including rape, attempted rape, attempted murder, robbery and theft, and was sentenced to 54 years imprisonment with a minimum of 43 years. Six prison wardens linked to his latest escape were dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Convicted criminal and serial escapee Annanias Mathe nearly broke out of the Ebongweni C-Max prison, near Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, the Sunday Tribune reported. According to the report, Mathe, who escaped from Johannesburg Central prison in January 2005 and Pretoria C-Max prison in 2006, used a hammer and chisel to break through the wall of his … Continue reading “Black serial killer Mathe nearly breaks out of his cell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[6752,6753],"class_list":["post-10884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-annanias-mathe","tag-ebongweni-c-max-prison"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Annanias_Mathe.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10886,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10884\/revisions\/10886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}