Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu has confirmed that the South African Police Service (SAPS) released convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester after apprehending him for speeding in July 2022. Bester had escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre on 3 May that year.
Mchunu was responding last week to questions from DA MP and National Council of Provinces delegate for the Western Cape, Nicholas Gotsell. Mchunu said that Bester was “arrested” for speeding by traffic officers from Laingsburg on 12 July 2022, three months after his escape.
Bester showed the police a fraudulent identity document in the name of Katlegho Nkwana. GroundUp has previously reported how Bester used this identity to build a new life outside prison and scam people out of millions of rand.
The police officers realised the document was fraudulent, but did not know it was Bester. They released him with a notice to appear in court. But he never appeared in court.
Two police officers had received final written warnings for releasing Bester, Mchunu said. He said that a person “detained for speeding, while awaiting information which could confirm the suspect’s possible involvement in other crimes, must not be released on a notice to appear in court”.
At the time, the SAPS had not yet set up a “track and trace” team to reapprehend Bester, said Mchunu.
“At that specified time, it was unknown to the SAPS that Thabo Bester had escaped,” said Mchunu.
Misleading
But this is misleading. Investigators in Bloemfontein had already concluded by June 2022 that Bester had escaped. This was confirmed by the SAPS during a recent investigation by the public protector.
When a burned body was found in Bester’s cell on 3 May 2022, it was first assumed that Bester had committed suicide. The police then changed it to a murder investigation after autopsy results showed the person had been dead before the fire broke out.
Later in May, Bester’s accomplice and romantic partner Nandipha Magudumana lodged a fraudulent court case, asking for the burned body to be returned for her. By June 2022 the police had completed DNA results showing a mismatch between the body and Bester’s biological mother. This led the police to conclude that Bester had escaped.
But the SAPS has said that it had to wait for the Department of Correctional Services to open an escape case before it could take action to investigate the escape and reapprehend Bester.
The director of contract management at the Department of Correctional Services, Roseline Phahlane, waited until November 2022 to tell the National Commissioner of Correctional Services of Bester’s escape.
And the department’s controller at the prison, Chris Mahonono, waited until January 2023 to open an escape case with SAPS.
Both Phahlane and Mahonono have since received final written warnings and been reassigned to different positions.
On 17 March 2023, GroundUp published an exposé of Bester’s escape. A week later, on 24 March, a track and trace team was set up by the Department of Correctional Services and SAPS to reapprehend Bester, who was arrested in Tanzania on 8 April 2023. DM
First published by GroundUp.