Convicted killer and “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre when a fire engulfed his cell. A badly charred corpse was found inside and presumed to be him.
A postmortem later revealed that the body was not that of Bester. Shortly after his escape from Mangaung, he was arrested again for something else, but bribed his way out of trouble in Laingsburg, Western Cape.
This incident, which has never been reported before, happened on 16 August 2022, when traffic cops stopped him at a roadblock. Driving like a bat out of hell, his Range Rover clocked over 190km/h in a 120km/h zone on the N1 near the town.
PRETENDED TO BE A TV SERIES DIRECTOR
He reportedly told the traffic cops that he was an executive director for the popular Mzansi Magic daily telenovela Gomora and was rushing to a shoot in Johannesburg.The Range Rover he was driving was registered under the name of the husband of Bester’s girlfriend and accomplice Nandipha Magudumana, later investigations showed.
Bester unsuccessfully requested to have his incarceration conditions relaxed
Frikkie Kapp / Gallo Images
Asked to show his driver’s licence when he was pulled over, the smooth-tongued Bester allegedly produced an identity document, claiming that he had forgotten his driver’s licence in another car because of his need to rush to the telenovela shooting location, where there was an emergency.
City Press understands that he was then arrested and taken to the Laingsburg police station holding cells.
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The traffic officers allegedly recognised him as Bester, but played along with his story to avoid raising an alarm. After locking him in a holding cell, the two senior traffic cops told the other officers at the station what was happening.
They allegedly requested two of the policemen to accompany them to the home affairs department in the area to verify Bester’s identity document before they could depose their final statement, which would be used in court during his bail appearance. After a close inspection of the ID, home affairs officials concluded that it was fake.
It had a correct photo of Bester, but bore the false name of Tom Kelly. Bester was duly charged with reckless driving and fraud.
However, while the two traffic cops and two police officers were still at the home affairs department, Bester allegedly bribed police officers at the Laingsburg police station to let him out.
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He was released on a warning and ordered to appear at the Laingsburg magistrate’s court a month later. However, Bester never returned to the small town for his court appearance, which led to a warrant for his arrest.
On returning to the police station, the four law enforcement officials were astonished to learn that Bester had been released without their knowledge.
MANHUNT
According to sources, the policemen who released him knew who he really was, but ignored their colleagues’ warning not to release him, even though he was listed as a wanted person.
This led the police to launch a manhunt for him. He was subsequently arrested in April 2023 in Arusha, a tourist destination in Tanzania, with Magudumana and Mozambican national Zacharia Alberto.After he had been released in Laingsburg, the SA Police Service (SAPS) established an 11-member highly experienced national task team, drawn from around the country, to investigate why he had been allowed to leave the police station.
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The task team proceeded to investigate their own colleagues, whom they suspected of accepting a bribe from Bester to let him go. Insiders say the police were embarrassed and enraged by the incident.
“The incident angered the police hierarchy because they believe that his arrest at the Laingsburg roadblock might have saved the country [a great deal of trouble]. The scandal exposed both the police and prison officials as [corrupt] amateurs, because, after escaping from jail, Bester ran free for a year,” said a source.
EMBARRASSED POLICE
City Press understands that not only the SAPS, but government officials would have been spared humiliation if the police in Laingsburg had acted with honesty and upheld the rule of law.A senior law enforcement official said the two traffic cops and the two police officers who arrested Bester had done everything required of them by law and had followed the correct procedures in ensuring that he was brought to book.
The official said:
The reason they left the police station to go to the home affairs department was to verify his real identity. “When it was confirmed that the identity document he had produced was fake, the police officers intended to use that information as grounds for refusing Bester bail while they launched a full investigation.
The investigation by the national task team (which has included statements of the four law enforcement officials who arrested Bester) has revealed corruption on the part of the SAPS.
It is suspected that the officers in the Laingsburg police station who let Bester go were paid a lot of money for doing so.However, nothing has been done about it, since there is no proof that money was exchanged for his release.
INTERNAL INVESTIGATION
“The SAPS is aware of this case.
There’s an internal departmental investigation under way that was sanctioned by deputy national police commissioner General Shadrack Sibiya,” said police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe.She declined to comment further, saying that the matter was now before the court.
Two weeks ago, Bester and his co-accused, including Magudumana, Senohe Matsoara, Zolile Sekeleni, Teboho Liphoko, Buti Masukela, Tieho Makhotsa, Zanda Moyo and Joel Makhetha, appeared in the Bloemfontein High Court in connection with his escape from the Mangaung Correction Centre with the help of prison officials in May 2022.
During his last court appearance, Bester unsuccessfully requested to have his incarceration conditions relaxed, including in the way he is transported from Pretoria to Bloemfontein.It was later established that the dead body found in his cell in Bloemfontein had been that of Katlego Mpholo.Mpholo had died outside the prison, but his corpse had been smuggled into the jail cell and allegedly set alight to make it appear to be Bester’s body, while he made his escape.
READ: Bester and Magudumana face new fraud investigation
After his jail break, which dominated national news headlines, Bester hid at Magudumana’s home in Hyde Park, Johannesburg.The two are believed to have started dating while Bester was in prison.They allegedly met through social media and began communicating, despite Magudumana being another man’s wife and the mother of his children.During his yearlong jail break, Bester lived an opulent lifestyle using numerous false identities.
He crisscrossed the country with ease, appearing at social functions under false names.The national task team has been instructed to get to the bottom of the matter and obtain enough evidence to reinstate the case, which is now being handled at the national office.The team was also instructed to ensure that those implicated in his release be brought to book.
City Press understands that the team has obtained a statement from Magudumana’s husband, who is believed to have stated that his Range Rover had not been in his possession at the time of Bester’s arrest for reckless driving in Laingsburg.
He allegedly told the task team that there was nothing sinister about this, because his wife had often borrowed any of his vehicles for her own use without asking for permission, as they were married in community of property.
