By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has shot down suggestions by the opposition party that DNA tests be conducted on Thabo Bester, saying the hospital records proved he was born in Soweto.
Motsoaledi said it was not possible for Home Affairs to conduct DNA tests on everyone because there were records to prove their identity.
Motsoaledi, who was replying during the Budget vote debate of his department in Parliament on Wednesday, said he has told DA MP Adrian Roos a number of times that DNA was not the only way to identify people.
He told Roos he was misleading the public with his suggestion that the only way to identify people was through DNA.
Bester’s identity has been the source of much speculation since he was brought back to South African from Tanzania last month.
During his latest court appearance in Bloemfontein on Tuesday his new lawyer asked the court to allow Bester to physically appear in court, rather than though a video link, to allow him to establish that it is in fact Bester standing trial.
The convicted murderer and rapist escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre by faking his own death in May last year.
Motsoaledi told MPs that Bester’s DNA tests were done by police in April, a week after Bester was deported back to South Arica from Tanzania, and the DNA match was 99%.
“For your information, because I want you to set this matter to rest Bester’s DNA matches the DNA of the mother who gave birth to him in 1986. It matches. It was not done by us, it was done by police.
“We told you that Bester, our Bester, was identified because of the mother who gave birth to him in Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 1986.”
He added that there are numerous processes that are in place to ensure babies are registered at birth.
“We told you that and you keep singing ‘DNA DNA’. We told you the process of the late registration of birth is to get documents from hospitals where you were born, from churches if you attended them, from preschools, Sunday schools and all over and we give that document to a special tribunal in home affairs, that tribunal decides on the base of this document whether they give you a birth certificate and they register your birth late.”
“That lady who is Bester’s mother matches 99.9%. Why do you want us at Home Affairs to repeat it? If the records in hospital are here that this lady came and gave birth to this boy, why should we query it?” Motsoaledi said.
Bester is on trial with his accomplice Dr Nandipha Magudumana and former officials at G4S security firm and Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni.