DCS will place 24/7 surveillance on Thabo Bester during Kgosi Mampuru stay

The correctional services department says recaptured fugitive Thabo Bester will be under 24/7 surveillance, as it confirmed he's being detained at Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria after being deported to South Africa from Tanzania.

DCS gave this update on Thursday morning during a briefing headed by justice minister Ronald Lamola and Bheki Cele on the deportation process in bringing Bester and his lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana back to South Africa.

The couple were brought back to South Africa in the early hours of Thursday by a high-level delegation led by Home Affairs.

The duo, along with a Mozambican national, were arrested over Easter en route from Arusha to the Kenyan border.

Magudumana and Bester landed at Johannesburg's Lanseria airport on a specially chartered flight.

Lamola gave a brief update on their return.

“We can confirm that these fugitives have been returned to South Africa. Bester has been readmitted to the Kgosi Mampuru Central Maximum correctional facility and Dr Magudumana is under arrest, pending her first court appearance.

“We are grateful to all the role players seized with this matter thus far, this includes state agencies and members of the public who have shared information that has assisted in the detention of the two fugitives, following an extensive manhunt. Thus far there is considerable progress with a number of arrests being effected.”

Lamola and Cele also thanked “the government of Tanzania for its unequivocal co-operation in the matter which relates to the arrest and process of deportation” of the duo.

Three more people have so far been arrested in connection with Bester's escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre prison on May 3, 2022.

Magudumana’s father, Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, was arrested at the weekend at his Port Edward home while former prison warder, Senohe Matsoara, was arrested in Bloemfontein by a multidisciplinary team investigating the escape.

The duo appeared at the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Tuesday facing charges of aiding and abetting Bester in his audacious escape.

They are also accused of arson, fraud and defeating the ends of justice.

A third person, 44, was arrested in  Bloemfontein on three charges of aiding and abetting, defeating the ends of justice and violating a dead body while a fourth person found driving a white Porsche believed to belong to Magudumana was taken into police custody for questioning, according to national police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe.

The suspect is a 28-year-old man. He was arrested in North West. The vehicle was seized by the Gauteng SAPS tracking team in Lichtenburg.

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