Thabo Bester’s partner Nandipha Magudumana’s father Zolile Sekeleni and a former prison warder named Senohe Matsoara appeared in court on Tuesday on accusations related to Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Center in May 2022.
Bester staged his own demise in a fire and broke out of the G4S-run Mangaung Maximum Security Prison in May of last year.
The accused accomplice, Magudumana, and the convicted rapist and killer were apprehended over the weekend in Arusha, Tanzania, and will be returned home.
Bester evaded capture for a year after it was believed he perished in a fire in his Bloemfontein prison cell.
A new post-mortem examination indicated the body was not truly his last month, prompting the start of a manhunt.
In Magudumana’s affidavit, she says that her father and an assistant went to collect the corpse from a morgue in Soweto on 13 May 2022.
Matsoara, 38, and Sekeleni, 65, were remanded back into custody by Magistrate Mohlolo Kgabisi. Lawyers Themba Diba, who represented Sekeleni, and Kagisho Moruri, who represented Matsoara, both agreed to the postponement.
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