Africa-Press – South-Africa. A day after a raid on the last-known residence of escaped rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, potential tenants were seen viewing the property.
The couple vacated the plush Hyde Park property two weeks ago, after GroundUp lifted the lid on Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein on 3 May 2022. It was initially believed that he had died in a fire in his cell. GroundUp, however, reported that Bester had a body brought into his cell, set it alight and escaped.
On Tuesday, police and forensic investigators entered the palatial home in Hyde Park in the afternoon and left well into the night.
News24 understands the team was looking for evidence, such as fingerprints, to prove Bester is alive.
Although it is known that Bester lived in the Hyde Park home with his girlfriend, aesthetics doctor Nandipha Magudumana, under the name “TK Nkwana”, police need concrete evidence to prove beyond doubt that it was indeed Bester.
Officers were also said to be searching for the couple’s employee, who had not been seen since they fled.
Unfortunately, the forensics team arrived two weeks after the couple moved out, and the owners of the company cleaned and repainted the home.
Upon entry to the property, the owners were told that the police would be dusting for fingerprints and “turning the place upside down” and that they should expect a mess once the forensics team leaves.
On Wednesday afternoon, News24 spoke to a realtor leasing the property who said she had been showing the home.
The owners of the home and the realtor both said they were honest with potential tenants about who lived in the house previously because there was a chance police could return.
The home, just down the road from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s residence, is on the market for R65 000 a month and includes five large bedrooms, a tennis court and a pool.
Links to Zimbabwe
In another bizarre twist, his girlfriend reportedly bought a luxury car and abandoned it on the Zimbabwean side of the border.
According to a report in The Citizen, Magudumana bought the a R1.35-million Mercedes-Benz last year. She then reportedly defaulted on the payments and abandoned the car in Zimbabwe.
These details were reportedly confirmed by the dealership that sold her the car. Magudumana allegedly owes around R700 000.
The move “point[s] to a plan to skip the country via the Zimbabwean border”, the report claimed.
According to The Citizen, footage obtained from a private investigator shows Magudumana crossing the border in January. She reportedly crossed back into South Africa on foot and was later picked up at a garage.
It also quotes footage, taken two months ago, in which Magudumana admits to defaulting on the car payments, claiming that a third party was involved in the agreement with the dealership and would make a new agreement. She said her aesthetic medical clinic in Sandton, Johannesburg, was struggling financially.
Bester was dubbed the “Facebook rapist” because he used the social media platform to lure his victims.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of rape and one of murder in separate trials in 2011 and 2012 and was sentenced to an effective life term in prison.
Magudumana had been suspended from practising as a doctor for failure to pay her annual fees for two years.
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