In an exclusive interview with IOL News, a Cape Town beauty therapist, who goes by the name “Taffy Tally Marz”, revealed he was paid handsomely by Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana for recruiting “beautiful models” for them.
Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha’s bizarre fixation with models
Bester, notoriously renowned as the Facebook Rapist, successfully staged a prison break from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022, and according to Taffy, who also goes by the pseudonym ‘Talent’, he met the convicted felon for the first time in Cape Town, six months later.
Bester, Talent revealed, turned up to his salon for a hair appointment in November 2022. At the time, the beautician told IOL News, he was none the wiser about Bester’s status as a fugitive.
His charm and charisma, traits which psychiatrists list as the hallmark signs of a narcissistic psychopath, dissuaded Talent from recognising Bester as the convicted killer, who, in October 2012, was sentenced to life in prison for two counts of rape and the murder of Johannesburg model and car saleswoman Nomfundo Tyhulu.
After a few encounters, which included several hair appointments, Talent was finally introduced to Dr Nandipha. However, bizarrely, the beautician was well acquainted with the celebrity aesthetician. In fact, as far as he knew, Magudumana was married and shared two kids with a prominent Gauteng doctor.
Alas, Taffy Tally, who runs Cape Town Nails Guru, as well as an event management company revealed that he grew close to Dr Nandipha and would often go out for lunch with her and the kids.
Bester and Magudumana apparently became aware of Tally’s event management skills and asked him to work for them recruiting girls. They paid him a lot of money for his services, and Tally recruited the girls as per the specific criteria they had given him.
Tally said that he would send pictures of the girls and set up meetings for Bester with the models.
“At some point, I would personally attend meetings with the models, and once satisfied I would send Bester their details including their pictures. I attended more than five meetings with Bester and the models,” he said.
Taffy Tally never revealed what assignments these models were hired for. Coincidentally, this shoddy line of work was an M.O. Bester used to lure women to hotels and sexually assault them before he was convicted.
Of course, Bester has since been re-arrested, along with lover Dr Nandipha, as well as her father, Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, a former G4S guard Senohe Matsoara and IT techie Tebogo Lipholo.
Sekeleni is the only co-accused out on bail, while the others are due back in court in mid-May 2023.