Picture File: 'Facebook rapist' Thabo Bester is seen on a television screen in the Western Cape High Court on 2 May 2012. Picture: Gallo Images / The Times / Shelley Christians
Two suspects arrested in connection with the daring prison escape of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester are due on Tuesday to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court.
The two men – including the father of socialite-doctor and Bester’s partner, Nandipha Magudumana – were arrested during the Easter long weekend for aiding and abetting the so-called Facebook rapist escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year after he faked his death.
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Magudumana’s father, 65, was nabbed on Good Friday at his home in Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal, while a 39-year-old former G4S employee was arrested at his residence in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
G4S is the company that was contracted to provide security at the Mangaung prison when Bester escaped from custody.
The pair’s arrests follow the detention of Bester and Magudumana in Arusha, Tanzania late on Friday night after South African authorities issued warrants for their arrests.
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The couple skipped the country after government confirmed the Facebook rapist – who lured his victims through the social networking site – escaped from prison after it was believed that he had taken his life by setting himself alight in his cell.
Bester and Magudumana were arrested along with a Mozambican national, Zakaria Alberto, who is believed to have assisted them to escape South Africa through the Zimbabwe border and made their way to Tanzania.
They were reportedly caught with several passports containing multiple identities in their possession.
A South African delegation, led by Deputy National Police Commissioner responsible for policing, Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili, arrived in Arusha over the long weekend to repatriate Bester and Magudumana back to South Africa.
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