G4S requests to appear before parliament to address Thabo Bester matter

G4S, the security company which manages the Mangaung maximum security prison, says it has written to parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services requesting a formal invitation to appear before the committee.

The portfolio committee on justice and correctional services will meet with the department of correctional services (DSC) on Tuesday to be briefed on Facebook rapist Thabo Bester’s escape.

“At this stage the committee is only aware of the information that it gathered from media reports about the alleged death in a fire of the inmate which is now alleged to have been a scam with the new allegations that he escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein,” said committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe in a statement.

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Magwanishe said the committee had not been briefed by the DCS regarding this “very serious” allegation.

“We have scheduled an urgent meeting on Tuesday at 10:00,” he said.

G4S has fully ‘cooperated’

G4S says, however, it has not been invited, and would like to present its side of the story on the matter. It said in a statement on Monday it had fully cooperated with various investigations by the authorities.

“G4SCS (SA) is bound by statutory obligations in the Correctional Services Act 1998 and is therefore unable to issue public statements on the events of 3 May or its cooperation with the subsequent investigations,” it said.

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“Therefore, G4SCS (SA) would welcome the opportunity to engage with Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and has written to the Committee requesting that it issues a formal invitation to G4SCS(SA) to appear before the Committee to address this matter under parliamentary privilege.”

Bester’s escape

Bester, who was convicted in 2012 for rape and murder, was spotted at a Woolworths in Sandton City nearly two months after his reported death in prison.

This despite being declared dead by the department of correctional services after a body was found in a prison at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022.

The official version was that Bester set himself alight in his cell.

According to GroundUp, the body found found in Bester’s prison cell was dead before the fire broke out.

READ MORE: Thabo Bester saga: Prison department denies it has autopsy report. Here it is!

Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa