Thabo Bester’s fingerprints were not found at Home Affairs

Thabo Bester’s fingerprints were not found at Home Affairs.

Police Minister Bheki Cele said that the woman who allegedly helped break her partner, Thabo Bester, out of prison, was cooperative with officials when the couple were nabbed in Tanzania almost a week ago.

Medical doctor Nandipha Magudumana is due in a Bloemfontein court on Thursday to face a host of charges linked to helping Bester escape last year.

Cele has moved to assure South Africans that the man who landed in a private jet in Johannesburg on Thursday morning and who had been reincarcerated at Kgosi Mampuru prison was in fact, the notorious murderer and rapist, Thabo Bester.

The police were also grilled about their failure to investigate and charge Bester’s partner and alleged customary wife, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, who is accused of claiming bodied to facilitate his escape. 

One of the bodies, which Magudumana allegedly claimed to be her father, was found dumped with an identification tag still attached to it. The second was the one she allegedly claimed to be Bester but was later proven otherwise through DNA.

“A technical team took his fingerprints. They were sent back into the country and those they matched. So, that satisfied officials of Tanzania, otherwise they had to be satisfied that he’s a South African and we have evidence on that.”

Cele said that Bester’s partner, Magudumana, who was on the run with him, was also positively identified through her fingerprints.

He said the police received Bester’s fingerprints from Tanzanian authorities which arrested him earlier this week. They also verified his identity independently.

Masemola added the escapee shared an identity with two other Thabo Besters who have IDs.

Responding to committee chairperson Gratitude Magwanishe, he said: “This person does not have an identity document, so the criminal records were the only way to confirm it is indeed Bester.

“He is a South African. The person who served at the Mangaung Correctional Services Centre is the same person the Tanzanians arrested. When he arrived here, we also ran fingerprints. He is a South African. He is Thabo Bester.”

Free State police commissioner Lieutenant-General Baile Motswenyane said they suspected, at one point, Magudumana, being a doctor, might have been part of a body part smuggling syndicate.

Motswenyane denied inaction on the part of the police.

“There was an inquiry opened, and this was a guarded prosecutorial investigation dealing with the cases of what happened at G4S.

“The investigation is at an advanced stage, and anything will happen at any time,” she added.