Parliament rips into G4S during presentation on Thabo Bester escape

G4S was berated by MPs for passing the buck to police to figure out how fugitive “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre.

The private company, which runs the prison, was summoned before the portfolio committee on justice on Wednesday after it was a no-show in last week’s meeting.

The MPs attacked the prison’s presentation on the events that led to Bester allegedly burning in his cell on May 3 last year.

Instead, MPs conducted their own visits which revealed that the G4S report had certain discrepancies.

These include an inaccurate recorded time of fire, that the prison approved for Bester to own a laptop during his incarceration, and that the cell he was moved to shortly before his escape was in a camera blind spot.

The prison’s director Joseph Monyante, G4S care and justice services director Cobus Groenewoud and audit and risk director Gert Beyleveld presented a detailed timeline of the events leading to the fire last year.

Monyante said Bester applied to move to a single cell as he felt unsafe after failing to pay a “protection fee”.

At the same time, the inmate placed in Cell 35 applied to be removed and placed in a normal cell.

Bester was then moved to Cell 35 on April 30 2022, which is located next to an emergency exit and is a distant blur on CCTV cameras that are placed far from it.

Monyante said at 4am on May 3 last year, the fire was discovered and extinguished by trained personnel. By 5.10am, a doctor arrived and certified that a person, believed to be Thabo Bester, was dead.

But MPs, who conducted their own visits to the prison, revealed that G4S had falsely detailed the time of the fire.

ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng said the footage they saw showed that the fire actually broke out at 2.30am and was reported at 3am. At 2.30am two men were seen on footage running to the administrative block of the prison.

“Why do you say 4am is the official time the fire broke out? The CCTV footage says 2.59am it was recorded, from your controller room?”

Beyleveld said they later found out the officer on duty did not act on the report and has since been suspended and dismissed.

ANC MP Xola Nqola said records showed that Bester applied for a single cell on April 15 but had a secret visit the next day.

Byleveld said their records do not show any visitors for Bester but Monyante admitted it was possible that it was not captured, as visitors are registered by officials and not a computer system.

DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach heavily criticised the 21-page report, adding it lacked responsibility and accountability from G4S.

“This report acknowledges no responsibility for this incident. You tell us how you follow the correct processes and co-operated with entities. You don’t say what happened, how it happened and what is done about it,” she said.

The sitting continues in the afternoon after a lunch break.