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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a press conference in Cape Town on Thursday, the Ministers of Justice and Police confirmed that murderer and rapist Thabo Bester and his accomplice Nandipha Magudumana have been successfully brought back to South Africa after being arrested in Tanzania on the weekend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022. Several other people have so far been arrested in relation to his escape. These include an official who was on duty the day of the escape, Senohe Matsoara, and Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, and an Integritron CCTV technician, Tebogo Lipholo.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more in Daily Maverick:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-04-12-damning-timeline-government-knew-of-thabo-bester-escape-as-early-as-october-2022-but-failed-to-act/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damning timeline — Government knew of Thabo Bester escape as early as October 2022 but failed to act</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police Minister Bheki Cele said that Magudumana cooperated with authorities in Tanzania, but Bester was not cooperative. Bester is currently held at Kgosi Mampuru prison, a C-Max prison in Pretoria, and Magudumana is expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Thursday. Bester is under 24/7 surveillance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magudumana will be charged with aiding and abetting escape, murder, the violation of bodies, and fraud. Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said that Magudumana had at some point been in possession of several dead bodies.</span>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING</p>\r\n[WATCH]\r\n\r\nI will be LIVE on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MorningLiveSABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MorningLiveSABC</a> at 6am with all the latest including Facebook rapist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThaboBester?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThaboBester</a> being driven out of a police nyala after the plane he and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DrNandiphaMagudumana?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DrNandiphaMagudumana</a> were traveling landed at Lanseria Airport.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/sabcnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#sabcnews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/w3BISCmWTa\">pic.twitter.com/w3BISCmWTa</a>\r\n\r\n— Chriselda Zozi Lewis (Babes Wendaba) (@Chriseldalewis) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chriseldalewis/status/1646362460092243971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Bester was in prison, Magudumana visited him frequently. After Bester faked his death in a prison cell fire, Magudumana collected the body found in Bester’s cell and claimed Bester’s possessions from the prison.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1646889\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG-4268.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"1399\" /> Flight Falcon 900B on its way to Lanseria airport carrying Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana. Photo:Screenshot</p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola thanked the government of Tanzania for its “unequivocal collaboration” in the process of arresting and deporting Bester and Magudumana. A Mozambican national who was arrested alongside Bester and Magudumana, did not return to South Africa. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First published by </span></i><a href=\"https://www.groundup.org.za/article/thabo-bester-saga-mps-from-all-parties-grill-g4s/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GroundUp</span></i></a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span></i>",
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"description": "Convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester and his accomplice Nandipha Magudumana were extradited to South Africa from Tanzania on 13 April 2023. They were on the run for almost a year.\r\n\r\nIn October 2022, the Inspecting Judge for Correctional Services, Justice Edwin Cameron wrote to Minister of Correctional Services Ronald Lamola:\r\n\r\n“There are indications that, with the collusion of G4S employees and others, a fire was staged in the single cell of one Thabo Bester (the notoriously named so-called ‘Facebook rapist’) and a corpse was smuggled into the cell with the objective of faking inmate Bester’s death and facilitating his escape.”\r\n\r\nBester was arrested in Tanzania along with his associate Nandipha Magudumana on 7 April, eleven months after his escape. But it appears that efforts to apprehend him only started on 24 March.\r\n\r\nThis was after details of Bester’s escape were uncovered by GroundUp.\r\n\r\nAccording to a source who worked at the prison at the time of Bester’s escape, the cell where Bester was kept was on the second floor of the prison. Next to this cell, there is a door that leads down to the exit. “It seems that he would have been able to escape through those doors,” the source said.\r\n\r\nThese doors can only be opened by the control room, the source explained.\r\n\r\nBester has been widely dubbed the \"Facebook rapist\" by the media. He used the social media platform to lure women with claims that international modelling scouts were interested in them.\r\n\r\nHe would then rape them and rob them using a knife. He also murdered at least one of his victims.\r\n\r\nIn 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for these crimes.",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a press conference in Cape Town on Thursday, the Ministers of Justice and Police confirmed that murderer and rapist Thabo Bester and his accomplice Nandipha Magudumana have been successfully brought back to South Africa after being arrested in Tanzania on the weekend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022. Several other people have so far been arrested in relation to his escape. These include an official who was on duty the day of the escape, Senohe Matsoara, and Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, and an Integritron CCTV technician, Tebogo Lipholo.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more in Daily Maverick:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-04-12-damning-timeline-government-knew-of-thabo-bester-escape-as-early-as-october-2022-but-failed-to-act/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damning timeline — Government knew of Thabo Bester escape as early as October 2022 but failed to act</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police Minister Bheki Cele said that Magudumana cooperated with authorities in Tanzania, but Bester was not cooperative. Bester is currently held at Kgosi Mampuru prison, a C-Max prison in Pretoria, and Magudumana is expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Thursday. Bester is under 24/7 surveillance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magudumana will be charged with aiding and abetting escape, murder, the violation of bodies, and fraud. Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said that Magudumana had at some point been in possession of several dead bodies.</span>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING</p>\r\n[WATCH]\r\n\r\nI will be LIVE on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MorningLiveSABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MorningLiveSABC</a> at 6am with all the latest including Facebook rapist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThaboBester?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThaboBester</a> being driven out of a police nyala after the plane he and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DrNandiphaMagudumana?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DrNandiphaMagudumana</a> were traveling landed at Lanseria Airport.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/sabcnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#sabcnews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/w3BISCmWTa\">pic.twitter.com/w3BISCmWTa</a>\r\n\r\n— Chriselda Zozi Lewis (Babes Wendaba) (@Chriseldalewis) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chriseldalewis/status/1646362460092243971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Bester was in prison, Magudumana visited him frequently. After Bester faked his death in a prison cell fire, Magudumana collected the body found in Bester’s cell and claimed Bester’s possessions from the prison.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1646889\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1646889\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG-4268.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"1399\" /> Flight Falcon 900B on its way to Lanseria airport carrying Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana. Photo:Screenshot[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola thanked the government of Tanzania for its “unequivocal collaboration” in the process of arresting and deporting Bester and Magudumana. A Mozambican national who was arrested alongside Bester and Magudumana, did not return to South Africa. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First published by </span></i><a href=\"https://www.groundup.org.za/article/thabo-bester-saga-mps-from-all-parties-grill-g4s/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GroundUp</span></i></a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span></i>",
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Flight Falcon 900B on its way to Lanseria airport carrying Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana. Photo:Screenshot