Ananias Mathe was a notorious rapist, murderer and a house robber who was convicted and was behind bars from 2006 till his death December 2016.
Mathe was born in Mozambique, and he moved to South Africa in 1999 where he was engaged in several criminal activities which kept bringing him in prison after several times he tried to escape.
He was the boss of cross- border crime syndicate operated from Limpopo border with Mozambique hijacking cars and other valuables which are smuggled into Mozambique. Mathe went on terrorising residents of Limpopo and Gauteng for nine months after escaping from detention at Johannesburg Central Police Station.
He became brutal in his approach, during his crime spree, he r_ped seven women in their homes in Gauteng’s highbrow areas breaking houses, terrorizing and stealing cars and other valuable household. In his days of criminal activities, he killed 13 dogs with poison before entering the home of his victims with a torch in one hand and a gun in the other.
He was arrested and convicted of 64 charges, including r_pe, attempted r_pe, attempted murder, robbery and theft. He became the first prisoner to have escaped from the Maximum High Security in Pretoria. He was famous for reportedly rubbing petroleum jelly all over his body to slip away from the Maximum High Security prison. His escape came as a shock to prison officials and the whole of South Africans.
This report by an investigative six team was rejected by South Africa Correctional Services Committee. Six prison warders were dismissed for helping Mathe escaped. It was believed that Mathe walked out after his gang paid warders up R80, 000. He once again went back to crime and after two weeks, he was rearrested when he hijacked a car at Craighall area of Johannesburg.
The car was fitted with a satellite tracking device which got him back to jail after a hot chase by the police. Being his second successful break out after an initial one from Johannesburg Central Police Station, he was sent to Maximum Prison in Kokstad in KwaZulu Natal where he would try to escape twice.
While at Kokstad, he had suffered from digestive health problem for a period of 3 months and was in and out of the hospital where doctors operated on him twice. He suffered severe constipation and could not urinate.
According to reports, officials were sceptical about his complaints as a grand plan to make an escape but later found out the issue was serious. By the middle of December, Mathe’s health conditions deteriorated, he was taken back to hospital for further medical attention and was taken back to Kokstad after surgery.
On Christmas eve 24th December 2016, he was admitted again where he once again operated on the same problem with things not being well in his stomach. On 27th December 2016, at about 5pm he passed away. He died natural death due to digestive system failure. His body was taken to Mozambique for burial.
Chronicles of Mathe’s crime;
1999 he moved to South Africa.
19, number of broken homes.
3, number of provinces he operated.
24, number of mobile phones stolen during his attacks.
13, number of dogs poisoned before breaking into homes.
7, number of women Mathe raped.
3, number of people shot after breaking into their homes.
64, number of charges levelled against him.
2, number of police killed during investigation.
2, number of key witnesses who supposed to have testified but disappeared during trial.
146, number of exhibits presented during trial.
150, number of people who testified during trial.
54, number of years Mathe was set to serve behind bars.
