Claims guards aided killer fake death in South Africa jailbreak

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A convict serving a life sentence for murder and rape who escaped from a top-security prison in South Africa by faking his own burning death likely got warders to help smuggle a corpse into his cell, a parliamentary hearing was told Wednesday.

Thabo Bester's elaborate escape happened nearly a year ago — when he was formally declared dead by suicide — but has only been made public and pieced together in the past three weeks.

Critics allege that officials intentionally covered up the story.

New details emerged in Wednesday's hours-long parliamentary hearing into security failures in the breakout, as lawmakers questioned senior officials from the prison and British private security company G4S, which has a long-term contract to run it.

Bester, who was convicted on one count of murder and two counts of rape and sentenced in 2012, was finally re-arrested in Tanzania last weekend along with his girlfriend, a celebrity doctor and socialite, police said.

Police are in the process of bringing the two back to South Africa.

Three prison employees, the prison's night supervisor and two warders in the security camera control room, have been fired on suspicion of helping Bester escape amid the confusion of the pre-dawn blaze in his cell on May 3, 2022.

One of them faces a murder charge over the body of the unidentified man that was left burned beyond recognition in Bester's cell.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.