Senohe Matsoara, a former G4S prison warden, and Teboho Lipholo, a suspended CCTV technician, were allegedly paid R80,000 to help Thabo Bester escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre last year.
The pair were allegedly promised R2.5m each to facilitate Bester’s audacious escape from the G4S-run prison, which resulted in the torching of the body of Katlego Bereng in Cell 35 of the prison.
Matsoara allegedly was promised R2.5m but was paid R40,000 from rapist and murderer Bester and his lover Dr Nandipha Maguduamana to allow Bester to escape. The charge sheet alleged he accepted the money to disconnect the prison’s cameras and recording system.
Lipholo also accepted R40,000 for his role in the escape, despite the initial promise of R2.5m.
These details were contained in the charge sheet the state will use as the basis for its case against Bester and Magudumana, her father Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, suspended G4S prison warden Buty Masemola, Tieho Makhotsa, Nastassja Jansen, Matsoara and Lipholo.
The eight face 16 charges including corruption, fraud, defeating the ends of justice, and violation of a corpse.
In an intricately woven scheme, the group are also alleged to have fraudulently claimed corpses from the Mangaung government mortuary and the National Hospital between April 7 and April 23 last year.
Instead of burying the corpse they set the body alight in Cell 35 of G4S Correctional Centre where the corpse was charred. In the grave where they pretended to bury the above-mentioned corpse was a coffin filled with bags of maize meal.
— Charge sheet
The state alleges that Matsoara, Magudumana, Sekeleni, Lipholo, Bester and Masemola falsely claimed a body from the National Hospital.
The charge sheet elaborates that the group was successful in claiming, collecting and removing the unknown body through false pretences. “Whereas in truth and in fact the said accused as such knew that the above mentioned misrepresentations were indeed not truthful and that the corpse, that they claimed was not the brother of Zando Moyo, the identity of the deceased was not Themba Ndlovu and that they were not entitled to claim, collect and remove the corpse.”
The state further alleges that the accused used the claimed body which they pretended to bury and “instead of burying the corpse they set the body alight in Cell 35 of G4S Correctional Centre where the corpse was charred.
“In the grave where they pretended to bury the above-mentioned corpse was a coffin filled with bags of maize meal.”
Police last week confirmed that the charred body was that of Bereng through records containing a set of fingerprints at National Hospital.
The second corpse that the group allegedly claimed was at the Mangaung government mortuary in April 2022, where Magudumana claimed the corpse was her father and that his name was Zingiza Magadala.
The group allegedly obtained and claimed the body of an unidentified corpse, pretending to bury the corpse, but instead they discarded the corpse by throwing it in the river. In the grave that they pretended to bury the unidentified corpse was a coffin with rotten meat.
Six of the accused appeared in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Wednesday. Their matter was remanded to May 11 and 12, where they are expected to apply for bail. Sekeleni, Magudumana’s father, was granted R10,000 bail on April 17 and was not present in court. Bester was moved to Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria. All eight suspects will appear together in court on May 16.
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