Central SA
SAPS should have arrested ‘big fish’ for Bester’s escape─── LUCKY NKUYANE 15:19 Tue, 10 Oct 2023
“From Day Zero it has been our conviction that the centre or operational manager of G4S or someone in management should have been arrested.”
A Bloemfontein lawyer said there are more compelling circumstances on why the so-called ‘big fish’ or at least G4S prison centre managers should have been arrested or questioned regarding the Thabo Bester escape case.
Thabo Molete from Molete Attorneys told OFM News that some of the accused in this escape case were merely low-ranked officials. He said an objective mind would say there should have been someone up higher who aided and abetted Bester to escape and also helped him and his girlfriend, Nandipha Magudumana, to leave the country illegally.
“From Day Zero it has been our conviction that the centre or operational manager of G4S or someone in management should have been arrested. The so-called 'big fish' in the managerial potions of G4S must be arrested but from where we are sitting, none of these people have been called to come and give account,” Molete said.
On Wednesday (11/10) suspects, including alleged mastermind Magudumana, and other former G4S security officials, will re-appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on varying charges which include fraud, corruption, aiding, abetting and violating a dead body.
Twelve suspects were arrested for aiding Bester to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022. Nine suspects, including accused 1, Senohe Matsoara, are out on R10,000 bail.
It is only Magudumana, Bester, and an illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe Zando Moyo who remain in custody.
During the meeting with members of parliament, G4S officials told them that 23 officials were on duty during the night of Bester's escape, of which seven were suspended whilst three have been fired from G4S.
Bester was arrested in Tanzania alongside Magudumana after he went on the run from the police. It's said that after his escape from G4S, Bester lived a lavish lifestyle in Johannesburg. But after being rearrested in Tanzania, he and his girlfriend were both brought back to South Africa.
Bester was sent to the Kgosi Mampuru II Maximum Correctional Centre while Magudumana was brought to Bloemfontein where she appeared in court on 13 April.
