South Africa's "Facebook rapist" suspected to have pulled off sensational prison escape

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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South Africa's "Facebook rapist" suspected to have pulled off sensational prison escape
  • Photos from June 2022 show a man who looks like convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester shopping in Sandton City.
  • Bester was thought to have died in a fire in his prison cell at Mangaung private prison in May 2022.
  • GroundUp received no reply from SAPS, DCS, or Bester’s “customary wife” celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana. JICS said they had not seen these images before.
GroundUp has seen photographs of a man who closely resembles “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester shopping in Woolworths in Sandton City nearly two months after his reported death in prison. The photograph shows him with long hair, wearing a tracksuit and sunglasses.

[GroundUp]
man-resembling-facebook-rapist-thabo-bester-spotted-in-sandton
 
why isnt he a Minister or the CEO of SAPO or another SOE?

I thought all of them got employed as soon as they got released from prison.
 
Vanessa13 said:
Why am I not even surprised?
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To be honest this is really not a simple thing to pull off. There is a lot of wheels that turns inside a prison that you will have to cover. Even if someone else died, there is stil one person short, and everyone knows everyone, you will immediately see if someone is missing that you knew. So the body that was recovered, where did that body come from, because you are not just going to hide the fact that another inmate is missing. There are strict controls on inmates, the number of them, where each one is housed etc, so lots of people would have had to be in on this to actually pull it off. Again this is SA and it is possible. Huge amounts of money would have had to been spent on doing this, if this was some kind of inside job where people were in on it, and if it was not done that way, there is still a person dead, who is that person, why has no one come forward to say they are missing a relative, or even people in the same unit as die "dead" guy saying he is missing?
 
Convict said:
To be honest this is really not a simple thing to pull off. There is a lot of wheels that turns inside a prison that you will have to cover. Even if someone else died, there is stil one person short, and everyone knows everyone, you will immediately see if someone is missing that you knew. So the body that was recovered, where did that body come from, because you are not just going to hide the fact that another inmate is missing. There are strict controls on inmates, the number of them, where each one is housed etc, so lots of people would have had to be in on this to actually pull it off. Again this is SA and it is possible. Huge amounts of money would have had to been spent on doing this, if this was some kind of inside job where people were in on it, and if it was not done that way, there is still a person dead, who is that person, why has no one come forward to say they are missing a relative, or even people in the same unit as die "dead" guy saying he is missing?
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I reckon they murdered some homeless person of a similar size and used his body. That way, no one else is missing other than the 'dead' guy and on one is asking questions about their missing relative.
 
Vanessa13 said:
I reckon they murdered some homeless person of a similar size and used his body. That way, no one else is missing other than the 'dead' guy and on one is asking questions about their missing relative.
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That is possible, but if that person was also an inmate in the prison, they would have had to make sure that the Facebook Rapist takes over his identity while being there. Then once the dead person would be up for parole, the facebook guy would go as him and try and get parole. That is a short version, long version would include having to remain in prison for a relative long time still, since it was a maximum security prison, taking of fingerprints before going for parole, having to pass that. Having to be transfered to another prison, as too many loose ends in the current prison that can ruin the whole plan. All those things would have to be considered. So yes it is possible, and it seems they did pulls this off somehow, I just cannot see how they covered all the bases, and this coming from an ex inmate who spent years thinking on how a person would "escape" if you had a lot of money available.
 
Do you really call it a prison escape if you just have to bribe a couple of people to fake your death and let you out?
 
Convict said:
That is possible, but if that person was also an inmate in the prison, they would have had to make sure that the Facebook Rapist takes over his identity while being there. Then once the dead person would be up for parole, the facebook guy would go as him and try and get parole. That is a short version, long version would include having to remain in prison for a relative long time still, since it was a maximum security prison, taking of fingerprints before going for parole, having to pass that. Having to be transfered to another prison, as too many loose ends in the current prison that can ruin the whole plan. All those things would have to be considered. So yes it is possible, and it seems they did pulls this off somehow, I just cannot see how they covered all the bases, and this coming from an ex inmate who spent years thinking on how a person would "escape" if you had a lot of money available.
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I think what you'll find ultimately, is that they've gotten away with it for now...

Those loose ends you speak of will eventually surface and the whole thing will unravel.
 
Convict said:
To be honest this is really not a simple thing to pull off. There is a lot of wheels that turns inside a prison that you will have to cover. Even if someone else died, there is stil one person short, and everyone knows everyone, you will immediately see if someone is missing that you knew. So the body that was recovered, where did that body come from, because you are not just going to hide the fact that another inmate is missing. There are strict controls on inmates, the number of them, where each one is housed etc, so lots of people would have had to be in on this to actually pull it off. Again this is SA and it is possible. Huge amounts of money would have had to been spent on doing this, if this was some kind of inside job where people were in on it, and if it was not done that way, there is still a person dead, who is that person, why has no one come forward to say they are missing a relative, or even people in the same unit as die "dead" guy saying he is missing?
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I think you give South African prisons too much credit.
 
There was a shocking thread on Twitter about this guy and he’s dealings. Needless to say, a rope could have solved all of this crap we are facing now.
 
skimread said:
I think you give South African prisons too much credit.
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Spent almost 19 years in them, I know it really well. Yes from the outside it seems simple, but the one uncontrollable factor are the inmates. nevermind all the staff that works there. Again I'm not saying it cannot be done, it surely can be done, I'm just wondering how they pulled it off.
 
Convict said:
That is possible, but if that person was also an inmate in the prison, they would have had to make sure that the Facebook Rapist takes over his identity while being there. Then once the dead person would be up for parole, the facebook guy would go as him and try and get parole. That is a short version, long version would include having to remain in prison for a relative long time still, since it was a maximum security prison, taking of fingerprints before going for parole, having to pass that. Having to be transfered to another prison, as too many loose ends in the current prison that can ruin the whole plan. All those things would have to be considered. So yes it is possible, and it seems they did pulls this off somehow, I just cannot see how they covered all the bases, and this coming from an ex inmate who spent years thinking on how a person would "escape" if you had a lot of money available.
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However it was done, it was almost definitely done with inside help. I can't fathom how else he could have got it right.
 
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