Dr Nandipha Magudumana & father in the dock on Monday: 7 more stories to read about the Thabo Bester saga

“Facebook rapist” and murderer Thabo Bester's lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, will appear in the Bloemfontein magistrate's court on Monday. 

Magudumana and Bester were arrested in Tanzania earlier this month as they were heading towards the Kenyan border with a Mozambican national. 

She appeared in court last Thursday on several charges, including aiding Bester, fraud, and violation of bodies.

Her father, Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, appeared in court last week with his co-accused, former G4S employee Sehone Matsoara, charged with aiding and abetting a convicted prisoner to escape from lawful custody. 

Magudumana will appear alongside the two and G4S CCTV technician Teboho Lipholo for bail information and possible bail applications. 

Following on from our first part where we delved into Bester and the aftermath of his escape, our second where we looked at more details of his prison break, and third where we recapped details of his recapture, here are seven more stories you need to read about the debacle:

Luxury weekend away before Bester's escape

The Sunday Times revealed Bester and Magudumana enjoyed “getaways” together while he was in prison, and in the months before his escape.

The couple stayed at the Tredenham Boutique Hotel for five nights in March and again for one night in April using one of Bester's aliases, TK Nkwana.

Three weeks after their April visit, Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre.

Luxury jet for Bester and Magudumana

Magudumana and Bester were returned to South Africa from Tanzania in a chartered jet rather than a state aircraft on Thursday morning.

TimesLIVE Investigations revealed the government chartered a Dassault Falcon 900B to fly senior police, home affairs and justice department officials to Tanzania and return to South Africa with the high-profile couple and their Mozambican “accomplice”.

Police minister Bheki Cele said this was part of negotiations with Tanzanian officials,

Caskets filled with mealie meal and wors 

Investigations are continuing into the acquisition of bodies Magudumana claimed from the Mangaung state mortuary and what happened to them after bags of mealie meal and rotting wors were found in the coffins in place of the bodies

TimesLIVE Investigations reported that Magudumana “fake-buried” two of the three corpses she allegedly stole.

She claimed the bodies were those of her father and brother. But instead of finding their bodies in the caskets, police and state forensic pathologists discovered bags of maize meal and wors wrapped in sleeping bags and thick plastic bags.

Magudumana’s brother, Nkosinathi Sekeleni, told TimesLIVE he was shocked to hear his sister allegedly claimed a dead person was him.

Bester and the great hair con

Nomaxabiso Xhotyeni told the Sunday Times about a day in April 2011 when Bester walked into her Table View hair salon in Cape Town, flanked by five young women, and tried to scam his way into free hair treatments.

“It’s not a day I can easily forget as everything about that day was so dramatic. Even the staff remember it like it had just happened. A con man tried to trick us into doing five girls’ hair without paying a cent. 

“He earlier called from the Commodore Hotel at the V&A Waterfront where he was staying with some models that he wanted to bring to the salon.”  

Inmate recounts the day Bester made his daring escape 

An inmate who was at Mangaung prison the day Bester made his daring escape opened up about what he saw, saying there was a hive of activity outside Bester's cell on the night before his escape.

“They [officials] were busy going up and down, I heard footsteps and doors being opened and closed. So what we didn't hear was the sound of the explosion, some of the officials said there was an explosion, but I didn't hear the explosion,” the masked prisoner told SABC News.

“In the morning, the late morning at around 4, I saw the officials coming out ... Later on we saw the DCS members, the two nurses [and then] at past 11, we saw police.

“The officials told us Bester burnt himself inside the cell, he committed suicide. But what surprised us is how, because inside the cell there is no electric plug. They don't allow matches to light, or cigarettes to smoke. So that was surprising [as to] how he managed to burn himself.”

Bester was a 'powerful figure' inside prison

During a parliamentary presentation on Bester's escape, MPs heard he was a “powerful figure” and always had an “enormous” amount of money inside prison.

Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Service (JICS) inspector judge Justice Edwin Cameron confirmed this, saying G4S personnel knew about it.

“I asked them if Thabo was a powerful figure in this facility, and the two officials both said yes. One official indicated to us that Thabo Bester made enormous amounts of money while inside. That is why I think the question put to G4S about the video conference at the Sandton hotel was so significant,” Cameron said.

Bester ran a bogus event and production company, 21st Century Media, while in prison and posed as the chairperson.

The man with no ID

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi said last week there was no record of Bester at the department and he “simply doesn't exist” on their database.

Police commissioner Lt-Gen Fannie Masemola had earlier told parliament's justice and correctional services portfolio committee Bester had no South African ID but officials were able to confirm it's him through his fingerprints and criminal record.

Motsoaledi confirmed this, as he provided Bester's family history from birth until his initial arrest in 2011.