The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has admitted that the ‘Facebook rapist’ Thabo Bester escaped from jail.
Bester was serving a life sentence for rape and homicide in Mangaung Correctional Centre, a most safety jail operated by G4S, a multinational firm. He was initially reported to have have set himself alight and died in a jail cell on 3 May 2022.
In November 2022, GroundUp started publishing reviews noticing anomalies with the official model of occasions, and delays within the investigation into Bester’s supposed demise.
In our first report we wrote:
“At this stage the probabilities are
- the physique is Bester’s and he killed himself by hearth;
- it’s Bester and he died in an unintentional hearth;
- it’s Bester and he died in a fireplace set by another person;
- it’s Bester and he was murdered earlier than the fireplace; or
- it was not Bester who died, and Bester may need escaped.
Possibility 5 is essentially the most unlikely, however and not using a correct investigation none of those prospects may be excluded.”
Frankly, we naively believed chance 5 to be solely far-fetched and absurd.
But as we investigated additional it grew to become more and more clear that Bester had escaped, nearly definitely with substantial assist from jail personnel.
On 15 March we printed the proof supporting the speculation that he escaped:
- The DNA of the physique within the cell didn’t match the girl claiming to be Bester’s organic mom;
- The coroner noticed that the physique was 145cm, some 25cm shorter than Bester;
- The particular person was lifeless earlier than being set alight. In truth the particular person died from blunt drive trauma and was probably murdered;
- The particular person’s arms and face have been way more severely burnt the remainder of his physique;
- On the sting of frames in footage on a CCTV digicam, which was suspiciously not dealing with the right angle, two individuals might be seen swiftly exiting the jail.
The DCS assertion, printed on Saturday, acknowledges a few of the above factors.
Since the above article, we have now additionally reported that Bester operated a enterprise from jail and was video-conferenced right into a glamorous Johannesburg occasion wearing a swimsuit. How this occurred in a most safety jail stays a thriller however G4S have refused to reply a single query from us. We have additionally printed images equipped to us of Bester and his accomplice Dr Nandipha Magudumana buying in Woolworths in Sandton greater than a month after he escaped. We have additionally obtained an audio file with Bester’s voice on it from this month.
The DCS assertion signifies that the 25-year G4S contract, expiring in June 2026, won’t be renewed. But G4S already introduced in November 2019 that it will not pursue a brand new contract to run the Mangaung jail, in a press release launched in response to a documentary that exposed human rights violations on the jail. “In line with the G4S Group strategy, G4S South Africa has no plans to invest further in correctional services in South Africa,” learn the assertion.
The DCS assertion additionally appeals for the general public’s help in capturing Bester. On this level it’s value noting that GroundUp has been making an attempt to share the knowledge we have now with the police (with out divulging sources). But once we tried to search out out from the police who we should always ship our data to, we have been perfunctorily advised to share our data with the Crimewatch line. It stays unclear who within the police drive is definitely in search of Bester and investigating the circumstances of his escape.
Finally, DCS states that it’ll depart no stone unturned in attending to the underside of Bester’s escape. This raises the query: why have been so many stones left unturned by DCS, the police, and the justice ministry till now?
© 2023 GroundUp. This article was first printed right here.
