Breytenbach ‘comes out guns blazing’ in Bester escape enquiry

Jewish Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach is leading the way in uncovering the large-scale corruption and incompetence that allowed convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester to stage an audacious prison escape and to return to society.

His escape will be the stuff of movies, books, podcasts, and series for years to come – how Bester got out of the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022, and then lived under the noses of authorities in South Africa for 11 months until the media finally revealed what had happened in March 2023.

Bester is also a con artist, and is known as “the Facebook rapist” for luring women over the social media platform and then raping them. He was convicted on one count of murder (of girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu) and two counts of rape and sentenced in 2012.

And that’s only the beginning of the saga, in which Bester may have spent weekends out of prison with his partner, celebrity doctor Dr Nandipha Magudumana, before burning a body, staging a suicide, and living a new life as a free man – including shopping at Woolworths in Sandton City. When the media finally uncovered the story, the department of correctional services admitted that Bester had faked his own death. Bester and Magudumana went on the run, and were arrested in Tanzania on 7 April 2023. They were deported back to South Africa and remain in police custody.

Breytenbach has been tasked with questioning G4S [the private security company employed by government to run the prison] and Police Minister Bheki Cele, amongst others, and she hasn’t held back. She says that as a member of the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee and as the Democratic Alliance’s Shadow Minister of Justice, it’s part of her parliamentary work to participate in such enquiries. G4S was subpoenaed by parliament.

Breytenbach is the chairperson of the Federal Legal Commission of the Democratic Alliance. She told the SA Jewish Report that G4S and Cele “must be held accountable for allowing and facilitating the escape of Bester, along with the obvious failures on their part, the corruption, the failure to make even a cursory attempt to re-apprehend him and his accomplices”. She also believes they need to be accountable for “their abject failure to warn and protect citizens of South Africa, particularly the surviving victims”.

She called the security company’s 21-page report on the escape “completely exculpatory” and said “G4S takes no responsibility for Bester’s escape”.

During the enquiry, she asked the G4S leadership, “You don’t think it’s part of your responsibility to determine how a murderer and a serial rapist walked out of your prison? That is someone else’s responsibility?”

She asked G4S Africa Regional Commercial Director Cobus Groenewoud why the company insisted that the body found in the cell was Thabo Bester’s body, “even after it was clear to everybody else in South Africa that it wasn’t”. She also wanted to know where the propellant, matches, or lighter used to start the fire in which Bester supposedly died had come from. It later emerged that the charred body in the cell wasn’t his.

“Whose palms were greased?” Breytenbach asked, saying that “an escape of Hollywood proportion” needed numerous people to pull it off as well as a big budget and support from high up in the political hierarchy.

“You have investigated and dismissed three people,” said Breytenbach to Groenewoud. “It’s simply not possible [that only three people helped Bester]. You’re talking to the South African public who have an absolute direct interest in this matter. They have an interest in not having serial rapists and murderers running around the streets. And your job was to make sure that didn’t happen. A job you failed miserably.”

When prison head Joseph Monyante said it wasn’t necessary to do lifestyle audits on prison staff, Breytenbach responded, “You employ people to look after hardened criminals and you don’t think it’s necessary to do lifestyle audits on your staff who have access to money, who are known for bribery and corruption. Are you saying your staff is above that?”

Breytenbach pushed Cele to explain why police didn’t alert the public to Bester’s escape earlier, particularly Bester’s previous victims. “It’s an absolute disgrace that the victims of this man weren’t warned, prepared, and protected,” she told Cele. “You should hang your head in shame, all of you. It’s no way to treat people. If, while you were so busy protecting the secrecy of your investigation, Bester had murdered another woman, if he had raped another woman, what would you have said then?” she asked.

Cele responded, “Well, I am not a speculator [sic]. It has not happened.”

Cele repeatedly argued that police kept quiet because they feared alerting Bester and potentially blowing their investigation.

Breytenbach told the SA Jewish Report she was most shocked and upset that “the heads of the criminal justice cluster in South Africa had knowledge of this escape for eight or more months and did nothing at all. They didn’t attempt to re-arrest, they did little or nothing to investigate, and quite clearly hoped that it would never become public knowledge. One must wonder why.”

She said she was incensed about the escape, and felt that every South African should be equally outraged. “They were knowingly exposed to a known and dangerous convicted criminal. They were deliberately misled by members of Cabinet appointed to carry their best interests at heart. It’s indefensible.”

While local media reported that Bester spent weekends away from prison at nearby hotels, including the Jewish-owned Tredenham Boutique Hotel in Bloemfontein, it’s unclear if Bester was actually on the premises with Magudumana. But in Breytenbach’s opinion, “At this point, having seen documentation to this effect, I do think it’s a very distinct probability [that he spent weekends away from prison at hotels].”

Breytenbach said she was unaware of other escapes on this scale. “There are regular escapes, but re-arrests happen very quickly. This matter is different, and involves corruption on a massive scale.”

She thinks Bester’s story represents a lot of South Africa’s current reality. “It symbolises a state that is rapidly descending into anarchy with no accountability. If the Cabinet members responsible for safety and security can deliberately mislead the country, we’re in serious trouble.

“The committee will continue to probe this matter, and will get to the bottom of it, come what may. South Africans must hold their elected representatives to account, and never accept this type of duplicity.”