Thabo Bester: 5 shocking revelations as MPs finally tackle G4S head-on over Facebook rapist escape
Pretoria - Senior officials from G4S appeared before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Wednesday, where they met fiery MPs who wanted to get answers about how Thabo Bester escaped from the facility in May last year.
There were shocking revelations revealed and many unanswered questions as MPs tour into the delegation from G4S with pointed questions regarding the events which transpired before the convicted murderer and rapist escaped.
The security company is responsible for managing the Bloemfontein prison where Bester served his sentence.
MPs wanted to know how Bester was able to run businesses from a prison cell, how he was able to seemingly still have contact with the outside world and why he had been moved to a solitary cell in the days leading up to his escape, which had initially been believed to be a fiery suicide death.
Here are some of the fiery exchanges which took place earlier on Wednesday.
– CCTV CAMERAS
Cobus Groenewoud, the G4S regional director, told the committee that on the night of the incident, all cameras were functional on that night, except Broadway 35, which is where Bester was being held and the administrative building.
The CCTV cameras stopped working at happened on 9:38pm on May 2, and at 04:11am, May 3, 2022, on the morning of the incident, they were working again.
The on-site night duty supervisor failed to follow policies, Senohe Matsoara, who has since been fired and subsequently arrested, failed to complete inspection rounds, failed to attend to incidents on time and ignored a call to attend a report of smoke where Bester was.
He also failed to account for his movements between May 2-3, 2022
Groenewoud said there was distant CCTV footage that showed two unidentified figures running toward an administrative building, where CCTV cameras were temporarily not recording.
“We were unable to identify whether the two individuals are prison officials or whether they were inmates.”
MPs also heard there were no smoke detectors at the facility.
– UNAUTHORISED CAR
An unauthorised car carrying a wooden TV stand was allowed into the MMC days before Bester’s escape.
The prison’s audit and risk director Gert Beyleveld admitted to the committee that the TV stand entered the premises without being searched.
He said the TV stand cabinet was brought in by the supervisor who has been dismissed. It was taken to the skills development department for repairs, but it wasn’t repaired.
When asked if a corpse could have fitted in the TV stand, he said yes.
Beyleveld said seven people were suspended over this.
– LAPTOP
The committee heard how Bester had his own personal laptop that he used to study as he was registered with Damelin to study graphic design.
“Inmates who are registered students have the right...they have the right if they are registered with a formal institution of learning to have access to a laptop and for that reason inmate Bester had access to that laptop,” said Groenewoud.
G4S officials said they did not know when Bester was supposed to have completed his course.
However, they were told his course finished in 2021 and it did not make sense that he still had his laptop in May 2022 when he escaped.
MPs heard how a cellphone and the laptop were found in Bester’s Cell 35 when he was supposedly burnt to death.
Modems were not allowed, MPs heard.
– JAIL BUSINESS
G4S said it had since become aware of the allegations that Bester ran a business from prison, however, they had no evidence that he ran a business from his cell despite conceding that he had a cellphone and laptop in his cell.
When one MP pointed out that there was evidence on social media, including a video that Bester used his laptop to commit more crime, Groenewoud said he had not seen that video.
Bester ran a media production company from prison, using the alias Tom Motsepe. In a launch event of his business, which was attended by celebrities, he booked out the Hilton Hotel and had guests singing happy birthday to him while he joined by video link from “New York”.
G4S admitted that they had not taken any steps to substantiate the allegations that Bester ran a business from the privately operated prison.
– DR NANDIPHA
The committee heard how Dr Nandipha Magudumana visited Bester regularly from 2017 until November 2021, just a few months before he escaped from the prison.
Beyleveld said they would not have stopped Magudumana visiting Bester on a regular basis.
The committee also heard it was Magudumana who collected Bester’s clothing items and other belongings after his supposed death in May 2022.
It was also the same Magudumana who had the unknown man’s body, at the time believed to be Bester, transported to Soweto from Bloemfontein.
Police later confiscated the body before she could cremate it.
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