Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie has claimed responsibility for Jermaine Prim — the convicted gangster accused of heading a Mercedes-Benz car theft syndicate from his jail cell — suddenly being moved to a maximum security prison.
On Thursday, it emerged in the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court, sitting in Palm Ridge, that Prim was moved from Johannesburg Correctional Centre to Kgosi Mampuru prison in Tshwane because of alleged death threats the gangster made to residents in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg.
In a video McKenzie recorded, he claimed to have orchestrated Prim’s move because some of the people the convict allegedly threatened to kill were “women members of the Patriotic Alliance”.
State prosecutor Richard Chabalala told the court on Thursday that Prim was still involved in gang activities in Eldorado Park and that a number of complaints had been received from residents.
Chabalala added that Patrick Mashibini, Gauteng’s correctional services head, listened to the complaints and decided to transfer Prim to Tshwane “because of what he [Prim] does when he is at Johannesburg Central”.
Last week, the Mail & Guardian reported that Prim was moved from the awaiting trial to the sentenced inmates section of Johannesburg Central, popularly known as Sun City prison, because of his “bad behaviour” of allegedly orchestrating the theft of luxury vehicles from his cell.
Prim is accused of scouring social media sites for Mercedes-Benz vehicle owners complaining about bad services from the car manufacturer. He allegedly clones Mercedes-Benz South Africa’s number to call the owners and arrange for them to hand over their vehicles.
The state alleges that, from January 2018, Prim pretended to be a senior Mercedes-Benz South Africa official, and would arrange to pick up the cars from disgruntled owners under the pretext that he was going to offer them a quality service.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish