The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Correspondent
AN inmate has been on the run for over three weeks after he used a prison officer’s uniform to disguise himself and escape while he was part of a work party.
Witness Ncube (27), an inmate serving a three-year sentence for robbery and armed robbery, reportedly stole the uniform of one of the prison officers guarding him and escaped when unsuspecting officers had let him out of their sight.
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) confirmed the prisoner’s escape.
“One male inmate escaped from lawful custody on 26 February 2019 at Bulawayo Prison. The inmate Witness Ncube sneaked unnoticed from a work-party and made good his escape. The escapee is still at large,” Principal Correctional Officer Garainashe Moyo, Provincial Public Relations Officer for Bulawayo Metropolitan Province said.
A source close to the incident told Sunday News that Dube was preparing food for officers with two other prisoners at Reigate Plots. After preparing the food, Dube told his minders that he was going to wash the plates behind the building that they were working on. This was when he found a window of opportunity to make a getaway.
“Dube and two other prisoners were preparing food for the officers who were part of a group working on a building in Reigate. When the officers had eaten and they were relaxing, he told them that he needed to wash the plates and that’s when he ran away. The other two prisoners that he was working with did not join him in the escape.”
According to the source, Dube had been wary that he would be conspicuous in a prisoner uniform and before he ran away he stole a uniform that belonged to one of the officers guarding him.
“It seems like he had planned this beforehand. When the officers are working on the building, they remove their uniforms. So what happened was that Dube knew where the uniforms are kept and before he escaped he charged into the uniform of one of the officers. That way he could move away from the building site and into the city without anyone noticing that he was on the run. If he had escaped wearing his prison uniform it would have just raised suspicion and he would probably have been apprehended quickly,” the source said.
