Inmate who escaped by faking death back in South Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A man serving a life sentence for murder and rape who escaped from a top-security prison with help from guards by faking his own burning death was brought back to South Africa early Thursday after going on the run with his girlfriend.

The couple were arrested in Tanzania last weekend.

State broadcaster SABC showed video of Thabo Bester being driven from Johannesburg's Lanseria Airport in a police vehicle with bars across the windows. Heavily-armed police put the girlfriend, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, into a separate white van at the airport.

Magudumana was expected to be charged with murder as part of the elaborate jailbreak plot, which involved getting a dead body into the prison where Bester was incarcerated to help him stage his own death in a fire and escape.

A prison guard and Magudumana's father already were charged with murder in connection with the body of a man found burned beyond recognition in Bester's cell. The unidentified man died of blunt force trauma to the head before the fire, police said.

Police and officials from South Africa's Ministry of Justice confirmed Bester and Magudumana were back in the country and said more arrests were expected.

Bester was convicted on one count of murder and two counts of rape and sentenced in 2012. He escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Free State province nearly a year ago, when he was formally declared dead by suicide after the fire in his cell.

Details were only made public and pieced together in the past three weeks. Critics allege officials intentionally covered up the story.

Lawmakers held an hours-long parliamentary hearing Wednesday into security failures that played a role in the breakout. They questioned senior officials from the prison and British private security company G4S, which has a long-term contract to run it.

Three prison employees, the night supervisor and two guards who worked in the security camera control room, were fired due to suspicion they helped Bester escape amid the confusion of the predawn blaze in his cell on May 3, 2022.

Although one was charged with murder, lawmaker Glynnis Breytenbach said she suspected more guards and officials were bribed to get the body into the cell and help Bester escape.

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.