[imagesource:iol]

This story is distressing on so many levels.

Thabo Bester was serving a life sentence in prison for a series of murders and rapes. Nicknamed the “Facebook rapist”, he was known to lure women in from social media with claims that international modelling scouts were interested in them before raping, robbing, and in some cases murdering them.

In 2012 he was sent to Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Prison, a maximum security prison – also the second-largest private prison in the world – run by G4S, a multinational security company, after murdering his girlfriend.

In May 2022, he was made to move cells for some reason and then 0n May 3, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) announced Bester had died in a prison fire, setting himself alight.

But, according to several elements and bits of evidence outlined by GroundUp, it seems that Bester may have actually escaped from prison at the time, having used another person’s body in the fire as a major decoy.

At the time, the celebrity aesthetician Nandipha Magudumana, who claimed to be Bester’s customary law wife, went to the prison to confirm that the body was his.

Then two months after ‘dying’ in prison, photos emerged of a person who looked very much like Bester shopping at Woolworths in Sandton with a woman who very much resembled Magudumana.

GroundUP revealed the photos, which were taken last year on June 30. Who knows why they were only released now:

I wonder if that poor cashier had any idea who the people were that she was helping to buy orange juice.

Chillingly, there is a child in the photographs who apparently looks like the photos of Magudumana’s daughter posted on her Instagram page:

 

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A post shared by Dr Nandipha (@drnandipha)

Being linked to a notorious convicted rapist and murderer is one thing, but bringing him anywhere near your daughter is pure terror.

Since becoming a trending topic on Twitter, the celebrity doctor has kept a low profile, declining to comment on the whole saga.

Meanwhile, she allegedly abandoned her Hyde Park home, claims GroundUp, having been evicted for not paying rent.

It appears as though Dr Nandi and Bester have been conducting business together all throughout his prison term and beyond, with him using her and her businesses as a means of channelling funds and setting things up:

It appears that Bester and Magudumana had been running a property renovation business called Arum Holdings. GroundUp is in possession of a recorded telephone conversation from last week between Bester and a client of Arum Holdings. Bester was using the name “TK Nkwana”.

They’re clearly tied closely together.

If you’re interested in delving into all the elements that suggest Thabo faked his death to escape prison, head over here and here.

The most telling aspects of the saga are that the man who died in the cell did not die from the fire but from a blow to the head; minutes before the prison fire, two people were seen leaving the prison; the height and DNA of the body did not add up; and above all, a prison warder informed the Deputy Minister that Thabo Bester had indeed escaped.

You can not even fathom the rollercoaster of emotion that the victims have been going through; feeling relief that he was serving life in prison, feeling more justice served when he died, only for that all to come crashing down when news emerged of him having escaped the grips of any justice at all.

SA’s justice system couldn’t look more shameful.

[source:groundup&groundup]