[imagesource:iol]

South Africa has been totally shaken by the appalling prison escape of the “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester.

As it turns out, he did not die in his prison cell but rather escaped totally unharmed, throwing our shoddy justice system into question and bringing to the fore just how many inmates manage to escape local jails yearly.

Serving a life sentence for murder and rape at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in the Free State, Bester faked his death and escaped from right under the nose of the security forces at the world’s second-largest private prison.

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) released a statement at the time telling of how he had reportedly died by suicide after setting himself on fire in his cell during the early morning hours of May 3, 2022.

GroundUp then did some incredible investigating and found that he had actually used another body (someone who had died by blunt force trauma and not a fire, which was striking evidence against Bester’s death) as a decoy and was living it up with his customary law wife, celebrity aesthetician Nandipha Magudumana, in Johannesburg.

Since then the DCS has admitted that Bester escaped, and the police have confirmed that they are investigating (yet another) case of murder (possibly) at the hands of this brazen criminal.

While Bester’s escape seems isolated in its remarkable execution, News24 reported that dozens of escapes have been reported over the years in South Africa:

According to DCS’ annual reports for the 2021/2022 financial year, 22 inmates escaped from various prisons around the country.

“It is also pleasing to note that the escape statistics of 22 is the lowest that has been reported in the past 27 years,” the report read.

In the 2020/2021 financial year, a total of 117 inmates escaped, while 34 broke out of correctional facilities the financial year before.

Nothing about that is pleasing, but okay.

A few notable escape stories include rapist, murderer and robber Annanias Mathe breaking free from Johannesburg Central Prison in January 2005 and Pretoria C-Max Prison in 2006 before his death in 2016.

Last year, four dangerous prisoners – convicted for crimes including murder, rape and robbery – escaped from Rooigrond Prison in North West, while seven prisoners – charged with murder, attempted murder and rhino poaching – escaped through a window from the Makhanda Correctional Facility in the Eastern Cape in October.

There’s absolutely no rest for the wicked and that very much includes our justice system.

Another News24 article notes how all this corruption and violent crime is having a seriously devastating impact on how justice is served:

“There is no correction taking place at the country’s correctional facilities. The only correction that seems to take place is improving the mastery of hardened criminals into even ruthless, artful dodgers”.

It’s a gruelling read and even worse, a terrible reality.

[sources:news24&news24]