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The Thabo Bester Story: The Facebook Rapist, the Celebrity Doctor and the Escape from Cell 35
News of the sensational prison escape of the murderer and 'Facebook rapist' Thabo Bester, assisted by his lover, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, shocked South Africa. In this book, Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, the journalists who first exposed the scam, tell the full story, from Thabo and Nandipha's life stories and their unlikely love affair, all the way to his faked death and their eventual arrest, in disguise, in Tanzania.
208 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 27, 2023
#TheThaboBesterStory – Marecia Damons & Daniel Steyn
#Tafelberg
True crime and real-life dramas sell. Schadenfreude might be the most obvious motivation for this phenomenon, but certainly not the only acceptable inference. When a convicted conman, rapist and murderer not only escapes a high security prison but manages to live a life of luxury whilst evading recapture, accompanied and abetted by a beautiful woman who has been hailed as one of the 200 top young South Africans by Mail & Guardian in 2018, the absurdity of the situation demands answers.
Adding fuel to the blazing barrage of questions, the authorities failed their duties dismally; the plot regarding the escape, as well as the recapture in effect being orchestrated by the private sector in that an expose by GroundUp was the undisputed trigger that brought the shadowy events to light. The authors are without a doubt justified in acting as the storytellers, both were awarded the 2023 Nat Nakasa Award for media integrity for their work of the Thabo Bester story.
Ironically the person named Thabo Bester did not exist for several decades. Born in 1986 as the consequence of rape, his name was not added to the National Population Register and he had no birth certificate. His mother bore the surname Mabaso, she informally named her son Thabo and borrowed the surname Bester from her maternal grandparents. Young Thabo was a born conman, committing minor acts of fraud before he was able to read properly. As is often the case, the initial petty crimes escalated to large scale fraud, robbery, and rape. And soon thereafter also to murder.
His conniving personality was glaringly obvious during his trial. He pled guilty, thereby avoiding the risk that a version different from his own would be placed before the court. An example of his refusal to accept responsibility for his actions and his inability to communicate honestly is his version of events that led to the charge of murder. In short, he fatally stabbed one Nomfundo Tyhulu, left her body in the guest house where they stayed and fled with her property. Instead of admitting that he had stabbed her, he claimed: ‘The knife got out of hand. She got stabbed.’ (75). Dr Gerard Labuschagne interviewed Bester and reported to GroundUp that 99% of what he said was ‘probably absolute bullshit’.
Theories as to why a glamorous and successful young women would risk everything for this scoundrel who had at least 13 aliases and more than 100 cellphone numbers are discussed by the authors, as is the intrinsic planning that resulted in the eventual escape, their life as a couple in a Hyde Park Mansion, the flight to Tanzania and the eventual arrests of twelve people implicated in the dramatic events.
Important additions to the story itself are the inclusion of discussions on the Parliamentary enquiry into the accountability of the prison management company, G4S, the SAPS, the judicial inspectorate, the Department of Correctional Services, and the subcontractor in charge of maintaining the prison’s CCTV cameras and electronic locking systems, Integriton Integrated Solutions, as well as the critical investigation of South Africa’s dire prisons, and the explanatory distinction between deportation and extradition.
The Thabo Bester story will most likely drag on in courts for the foreseeable future and this book will provide the general public with a better understanding of the history and the processes.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek NB-Uitgewers/Publishers
#Tafelberg
True crime and real-life dramas sell. Schadenfreude might be the most obvious motivation for this phenomenon, but certainly not the only acceptable inference. When a convicted conman, rapist and murderer not only escapes a high security prison but manages to live a life of luxury whilst evading recapture, accompanied and abetted by a beautiful woman who has been hailed as one of the 200 top young South Africans by Mail & Guardian in 2018, the absurdity of the situation demands answers.
Adding fuel to the blazing barrage of questions, the authorities failed their duties dismally; the plot regarding the escape, as well as the recapture in effect being orchestrated by the private sector in that an expose by GroundUp was the undisputed trigger that brought the shadowy events to light. The authors are without a doubt justified in acting as the storytellers, both were awarded the 2023 Nat Nakasa Award for media integrity for their work of the Thabo Bester story.
Ironically the person named Thabo Bester did not exist for several decades. Born in 1986 as the consequence of rape, his name was not added to the National Population Register and he had no birth certificate. His mother bore the surname Mabaso, she informally named her son Thabo and borrowed the surname Bester from her maternal grandparents. Young Thabo was a born conman, committing minor acts of fraud before he was able to read properly. As is often the case, the initial petty crimes escalated to large scale fraud, robbery, and rape. And soon thereafter also to murder.
His conniving personality was glaringly obvious during his trial. He pled guilty, thereby avoiding the risk that a version different from his own would be placed before the court. An example of his refusal to accept responsibility for his actions and his inability to communicate honestly is his version of events that led to the charge of murder. In short, he fatally stabbed one Nomfundo Tyhulu, left her body in the guest house where they stayed and fled with her property. Instead of admitting that he had stabbed her, he claimed: ‘The knife got out of hand. She got stabbed.’ (75). Dr Gerard Labuschagne interviewed Bester and reported to GroundUp that 99% of what he said was ‘probably absolute bullshit’.
Theories as to why a glamorous and successful young women would risk everything for this scoundrel who had at least 13 aliases and more than 100 cellphone numbers are discussed by the authors, as is the intrinsic planning that resulted in the eventual escape, their life as a couple in a Hyde Park Mansion, the flight to Tanzania and the eventual arrests of twelve people implicated in the dramatic events.
Important additions to the story itself are the inclusion of discussions on the Parliamentary enquiry into the accountability of the prison management company, G4S, the SAPS, the judicial inspectorate, the Department of Correctional Services, and the subcontractor in charge of maintaining the prison’s CCTV cameras and electronic locking systems, Integriton Integrated Solutions, as well as the critical investigation of South Africa’s dire prisons, and the explanatory distinction between deportation and extradition.
The Thabo Bester story will most likely drag on in courts for the foreseeable future and this book will provide the general public with a better understanding of the history and the processes.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek NB-Uitgewers/Publishers
December 12, 2023
Thorough work by the journos
Jaw dropping good
Jaw dropping good
July 12, 2025
Disturbing. Unfathomable.
December 7, 2025
Great read
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews