Afrigather 
Based on unbiased digital publication Groundup, on June 11, 2022, a jail warden on the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, South Africa, despatched an electronic mail to the South African Deputy Minister of Correctional Providers, Phathekile Holomisa, with the query. “Are you conscious that the inmate who ‘allegedly’ burnt to dying at Mangaung Correctional Centre was supposedly assisted to flee by the Mangaung Correctional Centre & Division of Correctional Providers officers on the jail to flee?” he requested.
The prisoner in query was Thabo Bester, infamously generally known as the “Facebook Rapist”. He was serving a life sentence for homicide and a collection of rapes, a sentence handed in 2012. Bester lured girls by promising them worldwide modelling gigs through the social media website, after which he robbed and raped them at knifepoint.
The “dying”
On Might 3, 2022 at round 3 a.m., an officer on the most safety correctional facility the place Bester was incarcerated reported smoke coming from Bester’s cell. A mattress had been set alight within the cell through which Bester had been remoted and a physique was discovered beneath it, burnt past recognition.
On the time, the Division of Correctional Providers (DCS) introduced that the physique discovered within the cell was certainly that of Bester, a “truth” which was widely repeated by South African media. Even the BBC reported the supposed dying of Bester.
“We’re capable of affirm that the inmate in query [Bester] handed away on Might 3, 2022. As required by regulation, an inquest docket was opened and there’s cooperation with authorities in that regard,” said DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo on the time.
Suicide or homicide?
Initially, Bester’s dying was thought by police to seemingly be a suicide by self-imolation. Nonetheless, a post-mortem report confirmed that the physique discovered charred within the cell, which to that time was believed to be Bester’s, had succumbed to blunt pressure trauma accidents to the pinnacle and never the hearth itself. Stab wounds have been additionally recognized on the physique.
Based on a supply who spoke with GroundUp, they allegedly spoke to Bester just a few days earlier than he died through which they noticed him being “uncharacteristically glad” and even mentioning that he could be “going away quickly”, an utterance the supply discovered odd as Bester was serving a life sentence.
After the hearth, SAPS Free State spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, confirmed that DNA samples have been taken from the physique after the hearth, and likewise mentioned it was “nonetheless to be confirmed” whether or not the physique was certainly Bester’s.
After the autopsy report, which famous a “robust scent of accelerant (paraffin)” from the physique’s trachea and bronchi, the police docket regarding the matter was modified from suicide to homicide.
Much more was not including up
There remained various gaps within the story about Bester’s supposed demise on that fateful morning of Might 3, 2022. To start out with, the charred physique’s peak on the time of the post-mortem was 1.45m, however in a police mugshot, Bester stood taller, at simply over 1.7m.
Moreover, a supply advised GroundUp that earlier than the hearth broke out, a jail official positioned Bester in a nook cell by himself. Nonetheless, that cell was not often ever used because it was troublesome for CCTV cameras to see into it.
The CCTV cameras pointing to the exit of the jail have been apparently not on the right angle at 2:59:50 a. m., seconds earlier than the smoke was first reported. Nonetheless, on the fringe of the body of footage captured on a CCTV digicam that evening, two folks may very well be seen unexpectedly exiting the jail.
Maybe, probably the most intriguing piece of the alleged demise of Bester was the photos from June 2022, virtually two months after his supposed dying, which present a person who seems just like the convicted rapist and assassin procuring in Sandton Metropolis, Johannesburg.
All this proof was shared by GroundUp with the related authorities, however no follow-up investigation was performed on the time.
Working multi-million-rand scams from jail
Even throughout his incarceration, Bester continued his scams proper from his most safety jail cell. Bester, calling himself “Tom Motsepe”, posed because the chairman of twenty first Century Media, a rip-off occasion and digital media firm, which was made to seem like a subsidiary of twenty first Century Fox.
The corporate had luxurious places of work in Sandton and employed greater than 30 workers who have been apparently given brand-new laptops at resumption.
Assuming the id of “Tom Motsepe”, Bester’s firm hosted a glitzy launch on the high-end Hilton Resort in Johannesburg. So brazen was Bester that he made an look throughout the occasion through video name, through which he made the attendees sing him a “glad birthday” jingle.
The attendees, who have been distinguished South African leisure trade personalities, have been made to consider that he was in New York whereas in precise truth, he was sitting in a jail cell simply 400 kilometres away.
Tom Motsepe’s profile on his web site claimed that he owned 33.5% of Viacom, 12.9% of twentieth Century Fox and “went on to occupy” UBS Monetary Providers in Switzerland.
Based on former workers, Motsepe, because the managing director of the corporate, ran each day operations which included placing collectively a rip-off occasion purporting to have Halle Berry and Taraji P. Henson as particular company. M-Web channel 1Magic was the official media accomplice for the occasion.
The top, or just the start of the saga?
On Saturday March 26, South Africa’s division of correctional providers issued an announcement confirming that the physique discovered charred past recognition on Might 5 2022 was not that of Bester, that means that he had certainly escaped from jail that fateful early morning. The division additionally issued a manhunt for him and both suspended or dismissed officers who have been on responsibility on the morning Bester escaped.
The revelation by the DCS that Bester had certainly escaped leaves extra questions that it solutions. Firstly, whose physique was discovered charred past recognition in Bester’s cell? Based on the post-mortem, the physique had head and stab wounds. Who inflicted these? How did Bester escape from his cell, not to mention a complete most safety jail, which is the second largest non-public facility on the planet, with out discover? Who aided and abetted his escape?
Moreover, Bester escaped from jail in Might 2022. Why did it take virtually a complete 12 months for the DCS to determine his escape and concern a manhunt? Have been it not for the exposé by GroundUp, would Bester’s escape have been “discovered”? The place is Bester now? Final, however undoubtedly not least, how did Bester’s “Tom Motsepe” alias handle to run a complete 30-person group firm from a most safety jail, with out detection?
Between June and September 2022, solely months after his escape, an Instagram consumer alleges that Bester had gotten into contact together with her, inviting her for auditions for a pretend Netflix present, an analogous modus operandi he had used to lure and sexually assault girls earlier than his eventual arrest.
Bester’s story not solely exposes the incompetence and corruption of South Africa’s public establishments however additionally reveals the position that social media and digital platforms can play in aiding criminality but additionally curbing and exposing it.
Bester used Fb to lure girls to assault them, and he additionally used Twitter, in addition to entry to web providers to run a well-coordinated rip-off proper from his cell in a most safety jail.
As consideration now turns in the direction of the manhunt for Bester, it stays to be seen the position that social media and the web typically will play find him. Will it, like throughout the quest for the reality behind the circumstances of his “dying”, do a greater job than the authorities?
