Another ex-G4S employee was taken into custody and charged with aiding and abetting Thabo Bester in his daring prison escape, police confirmed on Wednesday.
Thabo Bester escape: Here’s what we know about the latest suspect
In a statement, national police spokesperson Lirandzu Themba confirmed a team of officers swooped in on a 51-year-old man while he was on duty at Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Tuesday.
Early indications suggest the suspect allegedly played a crucial role in assisting a resourceful Bester in his daring prison escape from the supermax detention facility in the wee hours of 3 May 2022.
“He faces a charge of assisting an inmate to escape from lawful custody and defeating the ends of justice,” Brigadier Athlenda Mathe noted in a statement.
The suspect, whose identity remains unknown at this juncture, will appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, where proceedings will likely be brief.
Tuesday’s arrest takes the tally of suspects linked to Bester’s escape to five, including the Facebook rapist’s lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana, her father Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, IT techie Tebogo Lipholo, a former G4S employee Senohe Motsoara.
Of the suspects listed above, Sekeleni was the only accused granted bail. The rest of Bester’s alleged accomplices, with the exception of Sekeleni, are due back in court on 3 May 2023, for bail hearings.
When is Bester’s next court appearance?
Dr Nandipha’s father, on the other hand, will only return to court on 16 May 2023, alongside Bester.
Bester, with the assistance of prison guards, his lover Dr Nandipha and others, daringly escaped from Mangaung’s supermax detention facility in the wee hours of 3 May 2022, shortly after a fire broke out in his Isolation Cell 35.
At first, authorities believed the charred corpse found in the cell was Bester’s.
However, several autopsies revealed the contrary, and as Parliament’s Committee on Justice and Correctional Services heard last week, G4S, the security company operating the Mangaung prison, was aware of the shocking forensic report months before GroundUp broke the news.
Since his re-arrest, several public figures have come forward with details of just how powerful and influential Bester was, during his tenure in prison and well after he had escaped.
From running a multi-million rand media conglomerate to his bizarre fixation with models, a sadistic habit fed by Dr Nandipha and a Cape Town beauty therapist, Bester solely commanded an empire of ‘yes-men’ and women, with Magudumana, a celebrity medical professional and mother of two by his side.