South African News

Mzansi Shaken By Thabo Bester, Dr Nandipa Escape Drama

Mzansi is utterly rattled over news that an armed blue-light convoy collected furniture for fugitive Thabo Bester and his girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, after their hasty escape.

Thabo Bester, the “Facebook Rapist”, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for murder and two counts of rape. He would attract girls on Facebook under the guise of being an international modelling scout before raping them.

 

The Thabo Bester Prison Escape

GroundUp revealed that in May 2022, he fled from prison after staging his death in an apparent “fire” incident at Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC), a  private maximum security prison operated by multinational company G4S.

 

Thabo Bester Dr Nandipha
Armed Convoy Collected Furniture For Thabo Bester And Dr Nandipha After Hasty Escape [Image: GroundUp]

 

 

Dr Nandipa “The Wife”

After fleeing jail, Bester lived lavishly with his socialite girlfriend, Dr Nandipha, and rented five houses in posh Johannesburg suburbs of Hyde Park, Sandown and Morningside over the past nine months.

Sunday Times reported that Dr Nandipha started renting one of the Hyde Park homes in 2020, costing R40 000 monthly, and she paid a full year’s rent in advance. She lied to the estate agency, 4Tune Property Smiths, that her husband [Thabo Bester] was overseas.

 

Thabo Bester Dr Nandipha
Armed Convoy Collected Furniture For Thabo Bester And Dr Nandipha After Hasty Escape [Image: Sunday Times/Alaister Russell]

 

The agency would do video calls with Bester, who used the name Katlego Tom “TK” Motsepe Nkwana, while he was still in prison. After the jailbreak, Bester would meet up with the agency’s staff, and he now had a ponytail and beard, always wearing sunglasses, staff members said.

They only realised they leased properties to a convicted criminal and fugitive, Thabo Bester, after the GroundUp exposé.

 

Panicky Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha flee

After being outed, Bester and Dr Nandipha hastily fled their rented Hyde Park home with her two children on 20 March. The escape was so chaotic that the couple left jewellery and clothes strewn all over the house.

 

Blue-light Convoy, Guns and Bulletproof Vests

That day, the property agency visited the mansion, and all the furniture was in place, News24 reported. At night, someone came to lock the gate with chains. An anonymous 4Tune Property Smiths staffer said:

“The place was fully furnished, but you could see they left in a hurry because of the way the cupboards were left – all the clothes all over the place. So, it looked like they packed and left. On Tuesday at around 09:00, [the staff member] calls in a panic to say there are armed people at the gate busy breaking in.

“These thugs – I call them ‘thugs’ because they were armed to the hilt, bulletproof vests, and they came in driving Mercedes’ with blue lights on. They were just there to ‘escort’ the [two] removal vans, which came to take away all their stuff. But once the furniture was removed, they started stripping the interiors, taking the stove and other furnishings”

 

Thabo Bester Dr Nandipha
Armed Convoy Collected Furniture For Thabo Bester And Dr Nandipha After Hasty Escape [Image: Sunday Times/Alaister Russell]

 

South Africans Shocked By Thabo Bester’s Power

This development rattled South Africans on Twitter.

@ZPatriotsa:

“South Africa is now a fully-fledged Mafia State.”

@asiimwefelix22:

“Netflix should do a documentary about this dude. He seems more powerful than most leaders.”

@AndreYardman:

“My question is, how is someone who is wanted for murder and raping be able to have so much money?”

@OhFlipItsVuyo:

“This guy is a very connected individual. I think there’s a lot more to this day than what meets the eye.”

@AmuFloyd:

“Whose n*des does Thabo have to wield so much power?”

@AshleighAmberl1:

“Nothing about this guy spells legit…which is worrying considering the amount of power he has… Are they even looking for him??”

iharare

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