Thabo Bester: Officials Complicit To Escape Slapped With Written Warnings, SA Lauds Action

• The Public Protector has released a scathing report investigating the Thabo Bester escape and officials' complicity
• Advocate Kholeka Gcakela found a concerted effort to withhold reporting the escape to the prison for six months
• Citizens who've been following the case were vocal in the comments section, bashing the handling of the escape

JOHANNESBURG — The Public Protector's damning report into improper conduct allegations by correctional services officials revealed they were complicit to the Facebook murderer and rapist Thabo Bester's escape.

Advocate Kholeka Gcakela's report also investigated allegations of undue delay and omission by the former correctional services deputy minister.

Officials in Thabo Bester escape served

Ronald Lamola was the Justice and Constitutional Development Minister, while John Jeffery and Inkosi Phathekile Holomisa worked as his deputies at the time of the elaborate escape.

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The Public Protector's Office launched its investigation in March 2023 following the events at the Mangaung Correctional Centre 10 months earlier.

Since then, Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald ordered the redeployment of implicated officials and final written warnings.

In her report, Gcakela found that correctional services officials Roseline Phahlane and Chris Mahonono committed improper conduct by taking six months to report the escape.

Among others, the report found:

• The allegation is substantiated that there were undue delays by the DCS [Department of Correctional Services] functionaries to [report] Bester's escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC);
• The investigation revealed that in the early hours of 3 May 2022, a fire broke out inside Bester's cell; and
• The incident was attended by [prison] officials, who notified the police and, on their arrival, pointed out the charred body to them.

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Groenewald acknowledged Gcaleka's report and noted that the officials involved were reassigned. Department spokesperson Euné Oelofsen said the final written warnings were for the officials' failure to report the escape promptly.

Bester and Nandipha Magudumana, who were arrested in April 2023, are awaiting trial alongside their co-accused, including Magudumana's father.

The case is set for trial on 10 February 2025.

Vested onlookers bash complicity

South Africans vested in the case had their say on the development. Notably, many welcomed the action taken.

@TellUnknown wrote:

"They were protecting the big shots that handled Thabo Bester."

@NtsieniUnaado said:

"Lord @GroenewaldPJ sesithembele kini (we're looking to you) to handle prisoners like prisoners and prison be prison."

@KarinOakes3 added:

"All the deceiving and covering up by DCS. Shameful that they knew the dangerous Thabo Bester had escaped!"

@Penelope_Makala offered:

"We’re not shocked anymore by this case."

@nathanudiza mentioned:

"They didn’t learn about the escape weeks later. They knew beforehand and were involved in making it happen."

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Bester appeals to court to hand back laptop

In more on Bester, Briefly News reported that the convicted murderer and rapist filed an application in the Pretoria High Court demanding access to his laptop.

He claimed that officials unfairly took away his laptop and other belongings when he was re-arrested in Tanzania in April 2023.

Source: Briefly News