Read more
Dodgy WhatsApp war of words: Is Dr Nandipha’s ‘lawyer’ actually Thabo Bester?
Private investigator believes his WhatsApp exchange with Dr Nandipha Magudumana's 'advocate' may have been yet another 'Hollywood performance' by Thabo Bester.
Convicted murderer and ‘Facebook rapist’ Thabo Bester proved to be a master of disguise using various aliases to pull off elaborate scams, with his alleged accomplice girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Mogudumana. Images via Twitter, Instagram @drnandipha and GroundUp.
As South Africa’s most wanted couple remains on the run, the spotlight has increasingly shifted onto Thabo Bester’s girlfriend and accomplice, Dr Nandipha Magudumana. Now a heated WhatsApp conversation over a missing luxury car has emerged this week.
The conversation between a private investigator and an alleged legal representative of Magudumana was around payments for the mystery Mercedes-Benz which made headlines after it was found abandoned across the border in Zimbabwe.
The heated WhatsApp exchange, which took place on 28 February this year, has raised questions about the true identity of “Adv Mokoana”. The private investigator suspects the person is Bester.
The many aliases of Thabo Bester
The notorious Bester – the convicted murderer whose exploits in prison and on the run have puzzled the police and stunned South Africans – is equally infamous for his many aliases.
At last count, it appears the fugitive, who is on the run with Magudumana, might have racked up as many as 14 aliases during his lengthy criminal career. The latest known alias to be used by Bester is “TK Nkwana”.
In March, GroundUp reported that Bester used an ID and driver’s licence in the name of “TK Nkwana” after his escape. He also introduced himself as “TK” to unsuspecting victims of the couple’s dodgy dealings.
ALSO READ: Thabo Bester: Private security firm offers R100 000 reward for information
The Citizen can now exclusively reveal the contents of the WhatsApp exchange between “Adv Mokoana” and Striker Investigations’ Mark Strydom, who was tasked by the dealership to recover the R700 000 debt owed on the luxury vehicle.
Magudumana purchased the black R1.35 million Mercedes-Benz in 2022 from the business, which has several Johannesburg-based showrooms, with a focus on the sale of high-end second-hand vehicles.
WATCH: PI corners Dr Nandipha in Sandton
In video footage obtained by The Citizen, Strydom cornered the doctor at a Sandton restaurant to acknowledge her outstanding debt on 17 January.
A blonde Bester?
In its series of articles, GroundUp also reported that the charred body found in Bester’s prison cell after a fire broke out, was in fact not that of the “Facebook rapist”. The arson incident merely served as a smokescreen for his escape from Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Correctional Centre on 3 May 2022.
Strydom – who was unaware of Bester at the time – is now convinced that the man seated across from Magudumana at the restaurant was actually the “Facebook rapist”.
ALSO READ: Thabo Bester: Correctional Services concedes G4S boss lost control of Mangaung prison
Playing the race card
In the WhatsApp exchange, “Adv Mokoana” reverts to playing the race card in defence of his “client” instead of addressing the matter of Magudumana defaulting on paying her monthly instalments.
When his initial claim that a junior attorney has been in contact with the dealership is refuted by Strydom, he accuses the private investigator of a “white mentality” and bullying a woman “because she is black”.
Read the WhatsApp exchange here:
Truecaller ID points to Bester alias
Strydom’s suspicions that Magudumana’s so-called legal representative was in fact not really a lawyer were raised when “Adv Mokoana” told him “I will f**k you up” in a telephonic call preceding the WhatsApp conversation.
Interestingly, from March, Vuyo Manisi, who is an attorney and director of Randburg law firm VMI Attorneys, is cited and quoted in the media as the lawyer of the celebrity aesthetics doctor.
The Citizen was also not able to find any evidence of an “Adv Mokoana” registered with the Legal Practice Council.
Strydom said a Truecaller search of the cellphone number to establish the identity of the caller, produced “TK N”. This, according to the private investigator’s beliefs, could very well point to Bester’s “TK Nkwana” alias.
From Hyde Park to Harare?
The Citizen this week also exclusively revealed a baffling series of events which unfolded just months before Bester’s escape.
The explosive new information – obtained through interviews with a car dealership owner and private investigators – points to a scheme by Bester and Magudumana to possibly skip the country via the Zimbabwean border.
ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Thabo Bester’s Dr Nandipha and the abandoned Merc at Zim border [watch]
The couple, who have been linked to several elaborate scams, have been on the run since 21 March this year when they fled their plush R12-million Hyde Park mansion just down the road from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s residence.
Their disappearance follows a quarrel with their landlord after Bester and Magudumana, also known as Dr Nandipha, fell behind on their monthly rental of R60 000.
ALSO READ: Police raid Thabo Bester’s Hyde Park ‘hideout’
Bizarre border run with Merc
The mysterious Merc saga however might very well be an important piece of the puzzle of the couple’s rumoured cross-border escape plan.
In video footage claimed to be in possession of the dealership owner, Magudumana crossed the Beitbridge border post into Zimbabwe with the vehicle last year.
He claims that Bester’s partner can then be seen crossing the border back into South Africa on foot. He said the footage concludes with her heading to a nearby garage where she was later picked up by a different vehicle.
The dealer was, however, unwilling to share the footage with The Citizen, though its existence has been confirmed by another source.
According to Strydom, this seemingly senseless road trip took place before 17 January this year, the day he cornered the doctor at the Sandton restaurant.
‘This is Bonnie and Clyde’
Observers of the sensational criminal saga, including specialist investigator Mike Bolhuis, are of the opinion that the couple has already crossed the border into a neighbouring country.
“This is Bonnie and Clyde…They might be in one of the neighbouring countries already,” Bolhuis told eNCA this week.
“He’s extremely connected and also very well-known and he is very rich. The newest information we have is that he’s still in possession of a lot of money, which makes it very easy for him to move around and go wherever he wants to.
“He’s also changed his image. He has grown hair and changed his look completely and the same with Dr Nandipha. They are working together and escaping together… still fleeing every possible identification and they are watching the news.”
Mike Bolhuis on Merc mystery
Following The Citizen report on Magudumana’s bizarre border run, Bolhuis commented on Bester’s potential cross-border escape scheme in a video interview posted on NOWinSA’s Twitter account:
“He would leave certain vehicles with those who are involved with him on certain spots, so that in case he has to flee the country – like in this situation: He left the car on no-man’s land so that when they need to quickly leave, there’s already a vehicle available. That’s what we think has happened here.”
Why Bester is dubbed the ‘Facebook rapist’?
Bester was dubbed the “Facebook rapist” because he used the social media platform to lure his victims.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of rape, as well as the murder of his then-girlfriend, model and car saleswoman Nomfundo Tyhuluin, in separate trials in 2011 and 2012. Bester was sentenced to an effective life term in prison.
ALSO READ: Thabo Bester escape: Inside Dr Nandipha’s ‘extraordinary lengths’ to obtain stand-in corpse
