Makhado - One inmate was rearrested and police launched a manhunt for the remaining six inmates, after seven prisoners escaped during a jail break at a maximum security prison in Limpopo after a riot.
The riot started at the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre, in Louis Trichardt, on Thursday night, and lasted until the early hours of Friday morning.
"After several counting processes, the total number of prisoners who escaped came to seven. We are still making an appeal to anyone with information to come forward," spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said on Friday night.
"Following the rearrest of one of the prisoners who escaped from Kutama Sinthumule correctional facility [on Friday], the six outstanding ones have now been identified."
He said that 37-year-old Chris Faku was rearrest after the police received information from the community. Faku was convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
He said the remaining prisoners were Jabulani Issac from Pretoria, who is in jail on two counts of rapes and one count of sexual assault; Phathutshedzo Nemadodzi from Thohoyandou, who is in jail for murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances; and Ntshengedzeni Manukha from Thohoyandou, who is in jail for rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances; Ntshavheni Thomas Munyai from Riverside, who is in jail for murder; Zimbabwean national Nyota Raphaelj, who is in jail for house breaking and theft; and Mozambican national Justice Makamo, who is in jail for business robbery and common robbery.
On Friday, Mojapelo said that prison officials called in members of the public order policing unit and the tactical response team who managed to stabilise the situation.
"The police in Makhado have opened cases of arson, malicious damage to property and escaping from lawful custody after the prisoners of Kutama Sinthumule maximum prison went on the rampage, torched and damaged some of the prison facilities," Mojapelo said at the time.
After the officials conducted a headcount, it was initially discovered that six inmates were missing. The number rose to seven.