Thabo Bester Saga: SA Government Feels The Heat Over Celebrity Criminal

By News24 and GroundUp Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester appeared in court on Friday, for the first time after breaking out from one of the country's most secure prisons less than a year ago. Bester wore a matching yellow tracksuit and had his hair tied back as he sat in the dock in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Friday afternoon. The man, dubbed the "Facebook Rapist" for the way he coaxed his victims, spent almost a year on the run after he broke out of the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year. His escape was kept under wraps until community news publisher GroundUp revealed that Bester was not the person who was found dead in his cell. It has since emerged that Bester and his accomplices, who allegedly included his lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, smuggled a dead body into the prison to stage his death. Bester will continue to serve his life sentence for rape and murder, but will now face the added charges of fraud, defeating the ends of justice, escaping, and violating a body. The State's lawyer, Sello Matlhoko, argued on Friday that Bester need not appear on Monday when his co-accused - Magudumana, her father