South African National Police Commissioner (Saps) General Fannie Masemola said on Sunday that authorities would “look into the leaking of sensitive and confidential information to media houses” after it was discovered that Thabo Bester had indeed disappeared from custody.
There are many reports that there is a problem with the media house GroundUp, since November 8 last year.
Masemola also said that he has “prioritized the investigation into the Mangaung prison escape case, and that this is done in fairness to the victims, survivors and affected families.
“Detectives from Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses and organized crime investigation units in the Free State and Gauteng provinces have been working together in this investigation.”
The police hunt for Bester
Police have now registered a case of escape from lawful custody after the department of correctional services (DCS) confirmed Bester was not in custody.
Bester is presumed dead by DCS after a fire causes his body to burn beyond recognition in his cell at 3
May last year.
Unknown to the police or the man responsible for ensuring that he served a life sentence for multiple rape charges, Bester was in the wind.
also read: Thabo Bester saga: ‘husband’ leaves the rented house
GroundUp later reported in an interview on eNCA on March 18, DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the department did not have an autopsy report on the body found in Bester’s cell.
An autopsy completed on March 4, GroundUp reported, showed the deceased – whoever he was – had died from the effects of a skull fracture caused by blunt force trauma.
There was no soot in the deceased’s airways and, critically, there were “signs consistent with the use of an accelerant”, possibly paraffin.
The report also noted the absence of DNA kits at Mangaung prison, a private prison run by the multinational security company G4S.
Whistleblower in hiding
Masemola asked for patience “and the detectives are allowed space to carry out the investigation in full, to build a watertight case that can finally stand up in court”.
Meanwhile, the person who blew the whistle on Bester is reportedly in hiding after receiving numerous threatening calls.
Last year, Nkosinathi Sekeleni exposed Bester’s relationship with celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana – the whistleblower’s sister.
“We barely had a home and I was in hiding… I was afraid for my life because the article he wrote made me the center of exposing my sister.
“I don’t know what dots to connect. I don’t know which high officials are involved in this [case] and it can come back and bite me,” Sekeleni told City Press.
On March 17, GroundUp published a picture of Magudumana shopping in Sandton City, with a man who resembled Bester, almost two months after he was presumed dead.
It took nine days for DCS and the police to announce that they were investigating Bester’s disappearance.
The Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (Popcru) blamed DCS and G4S for Bester’s escape.
“We believe that this escape, including the numerous misconducts and abuses reported over the years, is mainly the result of the DCS transferring state security functions to foreign-owned companies whose sole preoccupation is profit maximization as opposed to for the core mandate of inmate rehabilitation,” Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said.
An internal investigation led to the security supervisor at the time being fired “on charges of negligence rather than a factor in the cause of the fire in the cell”, he said.
It is only now that the matter has been reopened “which shows that the central management is trying to brush the matter under the carpet”.
Police did not respond to requests for comment.
– Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa
NOW READING: Thabo Bester: ‘Facebook Rape’ whistleblower goes into hiding as Popcru blames government