Thabo Bester, a high-profile convicted murderer, is accused of faking his own death in a fire, and then escaping prison to live in the open with his celebrity doctor girlfriend.
Along with his famous medical girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana, he was detained. As of right now, her father and a jail warden are accused of killing, setting ablaze, and assisting Bester in escaping.
The intentional murder of an unnamed person was allegedly committed in March by Zolile Sekeleni and Senohe Matsoara, a prison warden who has since been suspended. The two men showed up in Bloemfontein, South Africa, at a magistrate’s court.
No plea was sought from them, and the charges were not further described. The case was continued to April 17 in anticipation of a potential bail application.
After it was believed that Bester had perished in a fire in his Bloemfontein prison cell, he remained at large for a year. After a further post-mortem examination proved the body wasn’t truly his last month, a manhunt was started.
Following their arrest last week, he and the famous doctor are currently in a prison in the Tanzanian city of Arusha under intense police protection. Officials from South Africa have been to Tanzania to arrange for the deportation of the couple.
South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world, was outraged by Bester’s escape.
He was referred to as the “Facebook rapist” because he attracted his victims through social networking sites. He was found guilty of raping and killing his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu in 2012. He had been convicted of raping and robbing two other women a year earlier.
After being on the run since Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May of last year, where Bester was serving a life sentence for murder and a number of rape charges, the two were finally apprehended in Tanzania on Friday.
Read also: Thabo Bester story: South Africa ‘Facebook Rapist’
Who is Nandipha Magudumana?
Nandipha Magudumana, Bester’s girlfriend, is a well-known medical professional and businesswoman with more than 100,000 followers on social media.
On these platforms, she shared glitzy photos, advertised her media appearances, and boasted about accolades like being named one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans of 2018.
Read also: Thabo Bester wife: Is Thabo Bester married?
The tales of Thabo Bester escape from prison
Thabo Bester‘s well-orehetsred prison escape and police manhunt for him to bring him to book are lumped in the following timelines;
25 March 2023 – Correctional Services confirms Bester’s escape
27 March 2023 – SAPS announces murder case has been opened against Bester
27 March 2023 – Spotlight on Nandipha’s family begins
28 March 2023 – Questions begin to swirl on then Mangaung Prison managers, G4S
30 March – Government says it’s ’embarrassed’ by Thabo Bester’s escape
According to senior police officials familiar with the investigation, the pair was apprehended over the Easter holiday weekend by “sheer chance” as a result of a normal police roadblock on the route to the Kenyan border.
“We were not actively looking for the couple in that country because our intelligence informed us that they were either in Zimbabwe or Mozambique,” one of the sources said.
The source claimed when Magudumana and Bester were arrested on Friday they said they were on their way to Kenya for a holiday.
“The police asked for identification and realised that the couple had entered Tanzania illegally,” the source said.
“Their passports didn’t have a stamp of entry and they had multiple passports. This raised an alarm and that is how they were detained. They only discovered who the couple were when they reached the police station and interrogated them.”