Andile Lungisa remained defiant in his final moments of freedom in Port Elizabeth on Thursday — and even as the gates of the North End Prison, historically known as “Rooi Hell”, slammed shut behind him, he maintained that he had done nothing wrong.

It was this same attitude that saw him rebuked by court presiding officers from Port Elizabeth to Makhanda and later Bloemfontein, as they all dismissed his appeal against his two-year prison sentence for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm...