By: Natasha Archary
Thabo Bester begged the High Court in Bloemfontein to grant him the death sentence in an emotional rant which went down during his first appearance for the pretrial of his escape case.
The convicted murderer and rapist claimed he was being treated with the utmost disdain, disrespect and unfairness, being forced to show up in court without his luxury branded clothing.
Shackled with chains around his ankles, Bester who escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022, made assertions that his co-accused, including his lover and accomplice Dr Nandipha Magudumana are innocent.
Bester said it was unfair to his co-accused to be sitting in prison when his escape from the Free State facility was orchestrated by political leaders because of his involvement in a personal capacity in political matters.
“I request that if the public and the prosecution are so convinced that I am a waste of these people’s lives that the public signs a petition and I be given a death sentence and I will immediately agree to it so we end this matter.
I woke up at 2am this morning, I’ve been having chains on my feet…my feet are ice at this point, I can barely feel my toes. This is not the way I want to proceed, if it means that the court can accept the petition and the can public sign it then I can be put to rest because I am at peace.
I know what I have done and what I have not done, I am not perfect but one thing I know for a fact is that none of these things would exist if there was no back-hand of political watchdogs that control the situation.
It tears me apart to see the people in this court, knowing very well that they are suffering for something they know nothing about.”
Thabo Bester begs for the death sentence
Calling Bester’s plea for the death sentence “nonsense”, the mother of Katlego Bereng, the man whose body was used as a decoy in Bester’s elaborate prison break, called the convict’s emotional rant an act.
Speaking to EWN, Monica Matsie said it’s appalling that Bester and Nandipha are playing the sympathy card because they miss the soft life they were living while Bester was in Mangaung.
Bester escaped from the privately run Free State Correctional Center by faking his death in a fire that was set in his prison cell.
The body that was found in the Facebook rapist and murderer’s cell was that of 31-year old Katlego Bereng.
A few months after Bester escaped from the privately run Mangaung Correctional Center, he was spotted shopping with Dr Nandipha and her daughter in Sandton City.
The couple who enjoyed a number of romantic “prison getaways” while Bester was doing time in Mangaung, allegedly used a number of fake aliases, and are accused of orchestrating fake businesses to defraud people of millions.
Bester and Dr Nandipha were arrested in Tanzania in April 2023 after fleeing the country.
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