Will the Real Thabo Bester Please Stand Up

Will the real Thabo Bester please stand up

well it's me says one elderly man from

Heidelberg and I never committed robbery

I only committed murder I it was a

convoluted tale that has the makings of

a Netflix docudrama hit no doubt so on

the 3rd of May last year if you haven't

heard of this story the Department of

Correctional Services announced the Thabo

Bester also known as the infamous

Facebook rapist had set himself a light

in his cell and died the coroner's

report also suggested that he had

suffered a blunt force trauma injury

before he died except had he really the

investigative unit ground up revealed

recently that a man with a striking

likeness to Bester was photographed

shopping at Sandton City two months

after his supposed death he was

allegedly in the company of the

celebrity Dr Nandipha Magudumana it's

all also understood that she tried to

secure the body of whoever died in the

fire claiming rights to it as best as

supposed customary wife how on Earth

could something like this happen well to

help to help us Wade through the

possibilities we are joined by Chad

Thomas who's a financial and organized

crime investigator from IRS forensic

investigations Chad a very good morning

to you and thank you for your time today

thank you and good morning to all look

I'm going to ask I'm going to mention

some specifics about the case I don't

necessarily expect you to comment on the

details but rather more generally about

how this kind of thing could happen but

let's start with this the Department of

Correctional Services surely has quite a

bit of egg on their face over this

any men's amount I think this is

incompetent or negligence or Corruption

of the highest degree

there are a number of salacious details

in the story including the fact that

besta was allegedly running a

multi-million Rand business from within

Prison Walls I mean the glitterati and

the well-heeled even attended a launch

of a supposed Foundation of of his at

which we understand he spoke virtually

and there he was wearing designer gear a

luxury watch claiming to be overseas

when in fact he was behind bars so all

of this begins even before the Escape

it does and it just shows the complicity

on the part of the officials within and

what is meant to be a Maximum Security

Prison how do you get those clothing in

how are you able to

have these broadcasts where you

purportedly in another place um if

you've maximum security you're under

constant

um control they're managing your

movement they're monitoring you and so

this could never ever have been pulled

off without the complicity of others

within the system

and even if we talk about

you know the the the death of whoever it

is that died in the fire if the

department is telling us that that

person was also the victim of a blunt

force injury

they surely then couldn't have set

themselves alive because there's every

indication this person may have even

died before the fire

no this shows all the indications of a

very well thought out Escape Plan

um either somebody was murdered outside

of the prison and brought in so that the

body could be used or another inmate or

somebody who worked in the prison was

murdered so that they could use that

body the the fact that the body was

burnt of course was to hide the true

identity of the individual they're

relying on the fact that South Africa

has a historic backlog of DNA testing

that's taking place and who would have

really cared and this is a a person that

had been in prison for some of the most

heinous crimes he stalked woman on

Facebook he murdered woman he was

involved in some seriously violent

crimes dating back to 2010 2011. so who

would have really thought that the

authorities would go to the extent that

they should have actually gone to proven

who this person was that was dead in the

cell and of course they relied on the

fact that he was purportedly in inverted

commas in solitary confinement and as

such it could have only been here

because there's such massive restrictive

movement within their Prison Complex

while bester's story will no doubt get

tongues wagging the other concern I have

is what about others and and his crimes

were awful enough certainly to the

victims and their families but there are

people with more consequential crimes if

you will in terms of their impact on

Society at large I'm talking now about

Mafia bosses leaders of criminal

syndicates if somebody like Thabo Bester

could achieve this one shudders to think

what those who are truly connected are

able to do

or money can buy you anything in prison

any indicative by this particular case

but one must remember the prison gangs

in South Africa have run the prison for

a very long time in fact some of South

Africa's gangs and within the prison

structures have been in existence for

longer than most games worldwide we have

a long torturous history of gangs within

the prison system whether it's the

numbers gangs whether it's the Royal Air

Force or whether it's the springboken or

trying to escape whether it's a 2 6 the

2 7 the two eights they have this this

long history and part of their process

is of course to either use threats of

bodily harm or important Financial

incentive to those who are meant to be

securing them in that facility to bring

them favors and those favors can be

anything one looks at some of these

syndicates that have been exposed

recently in prisons there was a

Syndicate in Yukon prison there was a

silly kids prison that were that were

actually operating with extortion rings

from within the walls of the prison

claiming to be police officers and

sending out messages and getting money

paid into e-wallet accounts so it's just

a bizarre situation and once again it

shows the collapse of yet another vital

institution within our country's

government and that is the safe keeping

of these prisoners it's not to keep them

safe it's to keep us safe from them by

having them locked up

well the other element which Bez

mentioning is that in fact this is a

facility that is run by a private

company G4S

how much does that complicate things

I'm not sure how it's going to

complicate things if you look at the

American prison system it's based

largely on privatized prisons the same

in Europe so I don't think one can lay

the blame at the security company who's

been employed to run this particular

president we've seen instances like I

mentioned blue cook which is run by DCS

we've seen instances of course which is

run by these years but when one looks at

a prisoner profile such as

Thabo Bester if that's what we can call

it because he has so many aliases one

would think that he could have been

locked up perhaps at C-Max ,why was he sitting in this particular

prison and how was it that there were no

checks and balances because he it seems

if he had the Run of his section

yeah but what about accountability even

for this private company so far we

haven't had a whiff of accountability it

no sense that action I don't know

perhaps the suspension of their contract

that kind of thing might happen as a

consequence of this

we obviously aren't privy to the

contract that's been signed between G4S

and the DCS but what I would imagine is

that there would be a lot of claims you

must remember even with somebody who

displays massive sociopathic

um traits who's used various

um guises and names he's a comedian of

sorts and he's not going to stop now

that he's on the run so you can see that

there will be claims against the state

whether those claims are also against

the private company that was engaged to

secure this facility will have to see

but it comes down to the engagement

between them and DCS but they are

definitely going to be claims made and

there has to be some form of

accountability and consequence in

respect to this and what I'm hoping is

not just another commission of inquiry

what we need here is a high level

investigation but a proper investigation

not an investigation that wax is lyrical

something that actually comes out with

what transpired and puts a stop to any

future potential such instances

it's quite extraordinary and then the

department of course that tried to shush

the media with a convicted rapist on the

loose it is really quite unbelievable

Chad Thomas appreciate your time Chad is

a financial and organized crime

investigator from IRS forensic

investigations and again I put it to you

yes of course the famous or the infamous

Facebook rapist his crimes were

devastating to his victims I I get that

and I don't mean to minimize it at all

but just think about what gang leaders

these are people who can send other

people to commit more crimes are able to

do if he could achieve this.