Home Affairs issues ID to Thabo Bester

Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester is no longer an unidentified person after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) issued him with an identity document.

Thabo Bester’s ID

During a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that Bester, who had escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre last year after faking his own death, was finally issued his birth certificate and identification document last week.

The convicted criminal had been living without any form of identification for most of his life.

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Motsoaledi said the documents were issued after an investigation that involved reviewing the birth records of Bester at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and data stored in the home affairs’ systems.

He said the outcome of the investigation revealed that despite Bester having attained the age of 16, he had not applied for an identity card as required in terms of the law.

“As a result of the said process, Thabo Bester was issued the identity card on 17 May 2023. His name has now been entered into National Population Register, thus ending many years of his status as an unidentifiable person,” said Motsoaledi.

Other inmates without IDs

The minister said he obtained permission from Bester to show his ID to the media.

Motsoaledi said Bester’s prison escape saga has highlighted the issue of other inmates who are in similar situations.

He said the DHA has agreed with the Department of Justice and Correctional Services to be provided with a complete list of such inmates.

“Thereafter, the DHA will take steps to ensure that such inmates are issued with identity cards. The DHA is taking these unprecedented steps because identification is at the heart of the security of the country and furthermore, a person without identification could be involved in nefarious and criminal activities undetected,” he said.

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Motsoaledi previously told the media that Bester was born on 13 June 1986, at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.

Police were only able to identify him through his fingerprints and photos on the South African Police Service’s crime database.

Bester escaped from the G4S-run Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022, after it was initially believed that he had died by suicide after setting himself alight in his cell.

An investigation revealed that the charred body that was used as a decoy in the escape was that of Free State resident Katlego Bereng.

Bester and his alleged accomplice and girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, were arrested last month, in Tanzania, after fleeing South Africa.

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