Department of Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi confirmed during a media briefing held on Friday, that an exhaustive search for Thabo Bester on the national population registry pulled a blank – at first.
Here’s why Thabo Bester didn’t show up on national population registry
As the gob-smacking story of Bester, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, unravels, Motsoaledi detailed a report on Home Affairs’ background search on South Africa’s most notorious fugitive.
As it turns out, a surface-level search for ‘Thabo Bester’ on the national population registry, which lists South African citizens recorded at birth, at marriage and death, turned up two profiles who did not match the re-captured killer.
Home Affairs officials also searched for a Thapelo ‘TK Nkwana, the pseudonym Bester used to build a million-rand media empire from behind bars, and the 60+ profiles that turned up were not a match for the Facebook rapist.
It was only when officials turned to Thabo Bester’s mother, Meisie Mabaso, that a full picture of the convicted killer’s past became clear.
Who is Thabo Bester? – Here’s a look at his background
According to Motsoaledi, Mabaso revealed Bester was born at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on 13 June 1986. In a bizarre twist, a look into the hospital’s archives turned up Bester’s original birth certificate, which bore his name and the actual date of birth.
Mabaso explained that factors such as her mother’s status as a domestic worker during apartheid, and Bester’s disappearance in 2006, contributed to the reason he, unlike his three other siblings, was never formally registered to the NPR.
Motsoaledi further revealed that Bester, for as long as he’s lived, has never held authentic South African ID and passport documents. In fact, the serial rapist was enrolled on a primary school without any form of valid South African documentation until 2002, when he dropped out of Grade 5, around the same time his grandmother passed away.
Coincidentally, Mabaso told Home Affairs officials that Thabo Bester disappeared in 2006, shortly before she and her sister applied for late birth registration for her three children, and they only re-connected five years later, when the Facebook rapist was held in prison for murder and sex crimes.
Speaking on Bester’s recent arrest in Arusha, Tanzania, Motsoaledi confirmed he was caught with an American passport belonging to a man named Tom Williams Kelly, which, based on research, was never used.
Dr Nandipha’s passport activity before she was arrested
His lover, Magudumana, was also caught in possession of three passports, one belonging to her and two others of Dr Mmereka ‘Pashy’ Ntshani.
Focusing on Magudumana’s passport activity, the Home Affairs minister revealed the disgraced doctor was first issued a valid South African passport in 2007, which expired in 2017.
A new travel document was issued to the doctor that same year and the only record of its use was on 9 May 2022, when she travelled out of South Africa using the Beitbridge border and into Zimbabwe.
Coincidentally, Magudumana’s trip to Zimbabwe occurred six days after Bester escaped from Mangaung prison. It still remains unclear what the purpose of the short trip was but passport records showed Magudumana returned via a flight from Bulawayo to OR Tambo International Aiport, on 9 May 2022.
The Home Affairs minister, however, was unable to confirm why the disgraced doctor abandoned a vehicle across the Zimbabwean border in late 2022.
At the time this article was published, Bester was due to appear before a Bloemfontein court for the daring prison escape.
