Thabo Bester escaped in G4S uniform, police officer tells court
Johannesburg - Facebook rapist Thabo Bester walked out of the Mangaung prison wearing a G4S uniform, investigating officer Tieho Flyman told the magistrate’s court yesterday.
Flyman testified that former G4S employee and security supervisor Senohe Motsoara had been the mastermind behind Bester’s escape.
He said accused Motsoara had driven the car - hired by Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s father - from Pretoria to Mangaung on April 28 last year.
Motsoara is also believed to be one who transported the corpse of Katlego Bareng from Pretoria to Bloemfontein. Bareng reportedly collapsed at a Pretoria taxi rank and died in hospital following a seizure.
Motsoara along with co-accused Teboho Lipholo, Tieho Makhosta, Matanyela Masukela and Natassja Jansen indicated they intended to plead not guilty and should be granted bail as they did not have pending or prior convictions.
The State however will oppose their bail applications on the grounds that it believes the community will take the law into their own hands.
On Thursday, the bail application of celebrity doctor and businesswoman Magudumana, who faces charges related to her alleged role in the escape of Bester, was postponed to May 16.
Magudumana’s lawyer, Frans Dlamini, asked that the matter be postponed to next week after new evidence emerged.
Dlamini reiterated that Magudumana was not abandoning bail but asked for it to be reserved.
Meanwhile, yesterday Flyman testified that on April 27, Zolani Sekeleni, Dr Magudumana’s father, hired a car at OR Tambo. Sekeleni gave the car to Motsoara who drove it to the prison on April 29 with the corpse inside before he reported for work at about 5pm that day.
He testified that it was Motsoara who paid some of the G4S employees to facilitate Bester’s prison escape. Motsoara reportedly received at least R150 000 from a person identified as TK.
It was also confirmed that TK is the same TK Nkwana or Tom Motsepe and also Thabo Bester, he said.
Motsoara is alleged to have promised Lipholo among others a payment of at least R2.5 million to ensure Bester’s escape. However, in the end, Lipholo was only paid at least R40 000, with R30 00 being paid before Bester’s escape through Lipholo’s wife bank account, while the remaining R10 00 was paid after his escape to Lipholo directly.
Flyman said: “Our investigation confirms that Motsoara facilitated the payment to ensure Thabo Bester’s escape and that regular payments of R20 000, R25 000 and R50 000 amounting to at least R150 000 went from TK’s account to his. He subsequently paid accused number 2 (Lipholo) at least R30 000, from some of the monies deposited by TK.”
Flyman said on arrival at the prison, Motsoara, who did not have a pass, was assisted by accused number 5 - Matanyela Masukela - to offload the corpse, which was inside a TV cabinet. He said that the corpse had been claimed by Magudumana.
She said the body was the child of an acquaintance’s brother. She said she was assisting him to arrange the funeral. He said a fake funeral was held, and when the police later exhumed the coffin, they found three 10kg bags of maize meal.
On the day of the fire, he said, Motsoara was on his phone while the rest of the officials tried to put the fire out.He added that on May 2, Motsoara, who did not work night shifts as a supervisor, requested a shift swap with one of his colleagues.
“Motsoara as the supervisor did not work the evening shift. He requested a swap with one of his colleagues. This is the same morning that the fire broke out in Thabo Bester's cell 35.
“He then instructed an official working at the Broadway section to attend to an inmate that complained of shortness of breath. The official tried to explain that Broadway could not be left unattended but he gave an instruction as the supervisor. This is when there was an alarm that there was a fire in Thabo Bester’s cell,” Flyman said.
After the corpse had been placed, Bester was given a G4S uniform and allowed to walk out of prison, Flyman said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.