By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation says the picture purporting to be that of former president Jacob Zuma standing with the convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester at his Nkandla home, is fake.
Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein on 3 May 2022, after faking his death in a fire in his prison cell. He sometimes used the alias “TK Nkwana” and used a fake ID in that name to sign lease agreements while in prison.
Spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi says the picture is malicious and an attempt to tarnish the former president.
However Manyi recently admitted to attending a five-star event organised by Bester, who led the event from inside prison.
The news come just as the country has been engulfed by Bester’s well-coordinated escape from the Mangaung maximum security prison in 2022.
Bester used his connections and money to stage a fire inside his prison cell and was assisted by prison officials and members of G4S as well as his girlfriend Dr Nandipha Magudumana to flee from prison.
The two lovers have since been arrested and deported back from Tanzania, where they were hiding ever since a picture of Bester went viral on social media, leading to suspicions that he had escaped from prison in May 2022.
Manyi admitted to having attended one of Bester’s star-studded events, saying it was well executed.
The event took place in Sandton in 2018 while Bester was serving time on murder and rape charges.
Manyi and many of Johannesburg’s high-flyers of the time were part of the Women in Media conference which had promised its guests an opportunity to be addressed by some of the A-listers from Hollywood, which turned out to be a scam orchestrated by Bester as part of the 21st Century Media launch in 2018.
The event was held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton. Other guests who turned up to this glitzy event included Amanda Du-Pont, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Wanda Baloyi and many others.
Bester appeared as Tom Motsepe and spoke from prison after telling guests he would be speaking from New York. The event turned out to be one of Bester’s long list of scams.
Meanwhile Magudumana, Bester’s accomplice, used Bester’s alias to book accommodation in Bloemfontein and Ballito in the weeks leading up to the escape. more than R120 000 was spent on these booking,GroundUp reported.
The police were informed of an invoice for a luxury hotel in Bloemfontein over a week ago. The invoice was left behind in the Hyde Park property where Magudumana and Bester were staying.
One of these bookings was for a mansion in an estate in Ballito, in KwaZulu-Natal, from 12-14 March 2022. The Airbnb said that he spoke to a man called “TK” on the phone before the booking. The booking cost R18 000.
According to the Airbnb host, “TK” provided the names and ID numbers of four people to stay in the house. Magudumana’s ID number was provided, but she used the name “Dr Enjoy Magudumana Nkwana”. Three others were also registered, two of whom were co-directors of Magudumana’s company, Vibes Africa International.
It is understood that Magudumana’s children also stayed at the house, but did not have to provide their ID numbers because they were underage.
A week and a half later, on 24 March 2022, Magudumana checked in at a luxury hotel in Bloemfontein, which is a 30-minute drive from Mangaung Correctional Centre. She provided a copy of her ID upon check-in. But the booking, which had been made online, was under TK Nkwana.
The manager of the hotel said that Magudumana made a second visit to the hotel on 13-14 April. The second booking was also made by “TK Nkwana”.
Police confirmed in Parliament on Thursday that Magudumana claimed three bodies from the state morgue in Bloemfontein, one of which was the body that was found in Bester’s prison cell. The Sunday Times previously reported that this took place in early April.
G4S, the multinational company that operates and partly owns the prison, told Parliament on Wednesday that Bester received regular visits from Magudumana, starting in 2017. The last recorded visit was in December 2021. But the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) said that Magudumana had made an appointment to see Bester on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2022. This appointment was later cancelled.
On 15 April 2022, the day after Magudumana checked out of the hotel in Bloemfontein, Bester applied to be held in a single cell due to safety concerns. But he later withdrew his application. JICS told Parliament that during their investigation they were informed by an inmate that Bester had received a secret, unrecorded visit on 16 April.
Magudumana again checked in at the Ballito accommodation on 19 April and stayed for 11 nights, this time accompanied by three others, one of whom was a co-director of Vibes Africa International. The booking was made by “TK” (one of Bester’s aliases), who had reached out to the host directly on WhatsApp. The 11-night stay cost a total of R90 800. It was booked well in advance and paid for on 23 March.
On 28 April 2022, Bester successfully applied to be held in a single cell and was moved. On 3 May, a fire broke out in his cell, a body was burnt, and he escaped from the prison. Two days later, on 5 May, Magudumana claimed the body from the state morgue, saying she was Bester’s customary law wife.
Magudumana left the country via the Beitbridge border post on 9 May. This was revealed by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Friday. She returned to South Africa on 12 May.
SAPS spokesperson, Colonel Athlenda Mathe, said: “We cannot provide blow-by-blow feedback of the evidence gathered and collected thus far. We request space for the detectives to do their work without undue pressure and expectation.”