‘I shower and exercise in a cage’: Thabo Bester says guards can easily monitor laptop use

Convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester has approached the High Court in Pretoria in a bid to have access to a laptop to prepare for his deportation case.

Bester, dubbed the Facebook rapist after a spate of robberies, rape and murder, was sentenced to 50 years in jail by the Durban Magistrate’s Court in 2011.

Bester came back into the spotlight in May 2022 after he escaped the Mangaung prison following a fire. A charred body was found in his cell, and presumed to be that of Bester.

However, his plan went south after he was spotted shopping at a Woolworths in Sandton City, nearly two months after his reported death at the prison.

ALSO READ: Thabo Bester saga: ‘wife’ abandons rented mansion

It was later found that Bester had escaped the Free State prison and he had faked his own death.

Following his escape from jail on 3 May 2022, a manhunt was launched, which led to his arrest in Tanzania.

Bester wants to challenge his deportation from Tanzania.

Bester: ‘My deportation is unlawful’

“The main application is of a person who was deported out of a country in Tanzania with false documents issued by home affairs. This confirms that the deportation was unlawful. My incarceration is also in question,” said Bester, who represented himself in court.

“I am challenging the lawfulness of my imprisonment and deportation and arrest in Tanzania. However, I cannot represent myself due to a lack of legal resources, and because of this, I am not able to defend my main application. I require access to a laptop to type.”

ALSO READ: Thabo Bester takes legal action against ‘inhumane’ conditions at Kgosi Mampuru

The judge told Bester she would not grant him access to a laptop, to which he responded it was his constitutional right to have access to a laptop.

“You will get law books, they will give you access to all the information you need, but not a laptop. You don’t have a constitutional right to a laptop. Show me in the constitution where it says you have the right to access to a laptop,” said the judge.

‘Students get laptops’

Bester said it was not an impossible task for the department to grant him access to a laptop as it was already doing that for inmate students.

“Students in prison have access to laptops,” argued Bester.

“Are you a student? I’m giving you access to law books and all the material you need, it will just not be electronic.”

ALSO READ: ‘People can be fashionistas somewhere else’ – DCS hits back at Thabo Bester’s ‘theatricals’

Bester said it was irrelevant and discriminative to insist only students are privileged to have access to laptops.

“If I am denied just because I am not a student, I would not want to be a student just because I want to put an application in court.”

‘Bester’s visual evidence’

He argued that his main application contained visual evidence, which is press briefings and would need a laptop to access those.

“I need to watch them, but how am I going to watch them when I am in C-Max? And the fact that I have no resources to access that evidence.”

He said he had lived without access to real-time information for the past 16 months.

“I have lived without access to newspapers, radios and watches. I did not even know the time over the past 16 months.

ALSO READ: Thabo Bester ran a glamorous media company from prison

“I am in a position where I am disprivileged because of the fact that I have two visits a month, which is 30 minutes a visit and I’m also limited to legal resources because every legal counsel that has to see me must make a legal booking based on availability, then it will be granted.

“If I have to submit any information, my resourcefulness in accessing information is limited because of the rules and regulations enforced on me at C-Max. I am not asking for free access to the internet. Access can be limited and secured in an environment that I am in. It has been proven by other prisons.

“In Finland, Denmark and Belgium there are systems in place for limited access. I am asking the department to put in the same measures.”

‘Monitoring’

He said the department can monitor his internet use the same way it has been monitoring his movements.

“There are two highly trained EST members, supervising everything I do 24/7. I shower in a cage, I exercise in a cage. I am completely by myself. There is no way I can access anything without them next to me. There are cameras outside my door,” said Bester.

“I am the most guarded inmate in this country. It is highly impossible that correctional services would not be able to supervise the device and access.

“You can give me books and I can read them, but who will file my applications? I will have to depend on a third party to file my applications,” said Bester.

ALSO READ: ‘Dramatic’: Thabo Bester pleads for death sentence, SA shows no mercy [VIDEO]