Thabo Bester escape: Inside Dr Nandipha’s ‘extraordinary lengths’ to obtain stand-in corpse

More details are continuing to emerge on the daring prison escape of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.

Thabo Bester saga continues

Bester’s partner, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, reportedly went to extraordinary lengths to obtain the stand-in corpse from a state morgue in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, that was initially believed to be that of Bester, the Sunday Times reports.

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According to the publication, Magudumana succeeded to cremate the body despite police suspicions that the person burnt in a cell at Mangaung Correctional Centre, on 3 May 2022, was not Bester.

Dubbed the “Facebook rapist”, Bester escaped from the prison last year after it was believed he had committed suicide by setting himself alight in his cell.

However, an investigation by the Department of Correctional Services, which originally declared him dead, confirmed that the charred body found in the cell was not that of the convicted murderer and rapist.

Bester has in fact been alive and at large for nearly a year now.

Police affidavits

The Sunday Times reported on affidavits related to the stand-in corpse from the Hillbrow morgue that was cremated at the behest of Magudumana.

One of the affidavits was deposed by Bester’s biological mother, Maria Mabaso, who confirmed that she had tried, unsuccessfully, to take possession of the body while she still believed it was that of her son.

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According to the report, Magudumana sought a court order in her capacity as Bester’s “customary wife” in order to bury the body. The celebrity aesthetics doctor apparently cited her “traditional and cultural obligations” to bury the corpse.

However, Magudumana did not bury the body but ensured it was cremated, conceivably to block any chance of police identifying the corpse.

‘Confidential agreement’

Magadumana’s lawyer, Vuyo Manisi, reportedly said the corpse was released from Hillbrow morgue to Sopema Funeral Services in Soweto after a “confidential agreement” was reached with police.

The body was first delivered from Mangaung to Sopema Funeral Services at the request of Magadumana. But when police raised suspicions, they apparently took possession of it there and it was sent to the Hillbrow morgue following Magudumana’s court application.

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Two independent Soweto funeral parlour owners with knowledge of the body’s cremation, told Sunday Times the corpse was used as a body double in Bester’s prison escape.

One of the funeral parlour owners said “nobody knows where the remains are save for the funeral parlour,” who declined to comment “due to confidentiality clauses”.  

Days after Magudumana filed her affidavit in May 2022, Bester’s biological mother made a sworn police statement that she had not given anyone permission to bury her son.

Mabaso told Sunday Times when she tried to bury her son she was told that the body was not that of Bester.

“Now I hear that he is alive, so I do not know what to believe anymore. This issue has been stressing me. I can’t eat or sleep because I do not know what is happening,” she was quoted as saying.

G4S boss lost control of Mangaung prison

Meanwhile, in a media briefing on Thursday, the Department of Correctional Services National Commissioner, Makgothi Thobakgale, conceded that the boss of the contractor G4S had lost control of the Mangaung prison following Bester’s escape.

Thobakgale said the department had taken measures to secure the prison by appointing a temporary senior manager to take over the facility immediately.

He also admitted that Bester’s escape from prison was well-planned.

Thobakgale said Bester’s escape was one of its kind and that findings of the investigation report clearly reveal that Bester had help when he escaped from “lawful custody”.

Additional reporting by Faizel Patel

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