File
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has welcomed the re-arrest of escaped fugitive Thabo Bester in Tanzania.
Bester was arrested in the city of Arusha near the Kenyan border on Friday night along with his girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, and a Mozambican national who has since been identified as Zacharia Alberto.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said a high level government delegation would on Sunday depart from South Africa for Tanzania to bring back the convicted rapist and murderer and his two alleged accomplices.
Bester, dubbed the Facebook rapist, escaped from the privately-run Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein in May 2022 by faking his own death.
Police said a case of murder is under investigation following the outcomes of a DNA analysis that confirmed that the body of the deceased who was found in Bester’s cell, was not his.
The autopsy report went on to further reveal that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and was already dead prior to the arson incident, the police ministry said in a statement.
Popcru’s spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said further investigations must continue into exactly how Bester managed to escape from prison.
“So now that it has been confirmed that he has been re-arrested, we think that it’s going to settle a number of questions because then the investigations should focus on how he got out of jail and who his accomplices are,” said Mamabolo.
