NPA boss Batohi urged to ‘remove all Free State prosecutors from Thabo Bester cases’

The office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) advocate Shamila Batohi has received a request to remove all Free State prosecutors from cases related to murderer and “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester’s epic prisonbreak.

Her spokesperson, Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga, confirmed receipt of a letter from human rights and social justice crusader Mary de Haas to the NDPP alleging irregularities, including bias, nepotism and creating an environment of fear.

“Indeed the office of the NDPP has received the letter and we responded to [De Haas] that the matter is receiving attention and will revert to her soon,” he said.

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In the letter dated 5 May 2023, the activist names two senior prosecutors which she claims were at the centre of the alleged irregularities, including malicious prosecution.

Malicious prosecution

De Haas claims the two senior prosecutors are involved in the malicious prosecution of Free State police whistle-blower Patricia Morgan-Mashale.

The former police clerk is facing charges of violating a protection order obtained by provincial Major-General Thabang Lesia, one of the senior police officers she has implicated in allegations of corruption.

The whistle-blower is currently in hiding following several alleged attempts on her life. A warrant for her arrest was issued after she failed to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on 3 March 2023.

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According to Morgan-Mashale, Lesia accused her of spreading false allegations of corruption against him and implicating him in protected disclosures to then police commissioner General Khehla Sitole.

The senior officer then opened a case against her on 30 August 2021.

Morgan-Mashale said she was subsequently accosted by two officers in her office, and her personal cell phone was seized before she was arrested.

Persecution

In the letter to Batohi, De Haas alleged that the prosecutors were complicit in the “atrocious treatment” of Morgan-Mashale and that the charges against her were patently malicious.

“…yet prosecutors are complicit in pushing them through. Despite the case for which [Morgan-Mashale] has been charged only being opened in September 2022, it was immediately prosecuted, yet in cases she opened many months before that, which [the Independent Police Investigative Directorate] thought should be considered for prosecution, the [NPA] has declined to prosecute,” she said.

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De Haas said they were also aware of political forces pushing for Morgan-Mashale’s persecution and that a confidential report on the seizure of her personal cell phone has been given to the office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence.

Thabo Bester link

She pointed out that the alleged irregularities had a bearing on the integrity of prosecutors in the Bester matter.

De Haas said fears of bias against the prosecutors have been fuelled by the prosecution team’s failure to oppose bail of Zolile Sekeleni, the father of Bester’s co-accused and lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana.

“I am therefore calling on you… as the [NDPP], in the interests of justice being seen to be impartial, to remove Free State prosecutors from all Bester-related matters, and appoint a completely independent team of experienced criminal prosecutors from another province to handle these cases,” the activist pleaded in the letter.

Bester escaped from the G4S-run Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC) in Bloemfontein in May 2022 after faking his death in a staged jail cell fire.

He and Magudumana, who is facing charges relating to her role in the escape, were returned to SA on 13 April after their arrest in Tanzania.