Charismatic former world boxing champion and convicted rapist Thabo Sonjica was re-arrested by police on Sunday, two years after he went on the run to avoid his six-year jail sentence.
On Friday his life of evasion came to an end when police finally pinned him down near his home in Duncan Village.
“He had no chance to escape because we surrounded his home and closed down all possible escape routes,” said a police source.
Sonjica's arrest comes as another prominent boxer is in trouble with the law.
A reigning African Boxing Union champion from Scenery Park will appear in court on Wednesday for a rape charge. He was arrested, appeared in December and was remanded in custody.
He is not being named as police were unable to say if he had pleaded. The police were looking for Sonjica from September 8 2017 when his application for appeal was dismissed by the Grahamstown high court, said East London police spokesperson captain Hazel Mqala.
In 2015, Sonjica was found guilty of raping a minor after he dragged a teenager into a Duncan Village shack and sexually violated her.
He was sentenced to six years imprisonment on September 30 2016 and started serving his sentence.
His latest charge sheet details how he brought an application to appeal the sentence on October 3, 2016 and was released on bail pending the appeal.
However judge J Mjali at the Eastern Cape high court in Makhanda (Grahamstown), dismissed Sonjica's application and ordered him to hand himself over to the police to resume his sentence within 72 hours.
Mqala said Sonjica disappeared without a trace for two years.
Mqala said no additional charges had been brought against Sonjica despite him hav ing been a fugitive from law.
Mqala said Sonjica had been sent back to the Mdantsane prison to carry on serving his sentence.
Mqala said Sonjica, a former IBO world and South African junior featherweight champion, was arrested in Duncan Village by the Family Violence and Sexual Assaults Unit (FCS).
A unit member, who may not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said Sonjica had been arrested near his home.
The policeman said: “We understand that he has been living in Johannesburg and kept visiting his home in Duncan Village.
“We have been monitoring his home for some time and we heard that he was seen arriving on Friday. We arrested him two days later.”
The officer said evidence showed that Sonjica was in East London in December and spent Christmas with his family but he managed to throw off the police when they stormed his home at that time.
Sonjica comes from a family of talented boxers with brother Ayabonga, 28, being only one of two South African boxers to represent SA at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
The police source said during the search for the fugitive, investigators’ phones were inundated with calls from people who mistook two similar-looking brothers.
“Even prosecutors would call us from a boxing match claiming they were watching the fugitive we were looking for but when police got there ready to arrest him inside the boxing ring, investigators would see that it' was the wrong brother,” said the police officer.
Eastern Cape correctional services spokesperson Nobuntu Gantana confirmed receipt of e-mailed questions about Sonjica but failed to respond by the time of going to print.
malibongwed@dispatch.co.za..