Police have made another breakthrough in the Thabo Bester escape case, arresting two more suspects, who Scrolla.Africa can reveal are former G4S security control room operators.
The two suspects, a 51-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman, were working as operators on the night that Bester escaped in 2022.
Sources have told Scrolla.Africa that the pair were later dismissed by G4S, the London-based global company in charge of the security at Mangaung Correctional Centre the night Bester escaped.
The duo will join Bester’s accomplice and girlfriend, Nandipha Magudumana, Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, former G4S employee Senohe Matsoara and CCTV technician Teboho Lipholo in the dock.
Last Tuesday, police added one more suspect when they arrested Buti Masukela, 51.
Masukela was still a G4S employee at the time of his arrest.
National Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe has confirmed that the two former employees of security company G4S were arrested on Monday in connection with Bester’s escape from custody last year.
“The two were apprehended at their residence in Bloemfontein on Monday, 1 May,” said Mathe.
She said the suspects will appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, 3 May, on charges of assisting an inmate to escape from lawful custody and defeating the ends of justice.
Mathe said the investigation into Bester’s escape has resulted in the arrest of eight suspects so far, with the possibility of more arrests to come.
The convicted murderer and rapist Bester was arrested last month in Arusha, Tanzania, after skipping the country alongside his partner, Magudumana.
Last week, the body of a man found in Bester’s cell was linked to his parents through DNA test results.
Bester was sentenced to life at the time he broke out of a maximum-security prison in May 2022.
Bester, who is now being held at Kgosi Mampuru II Prison, is due back in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on 16 May.
