The former head of the SAPS investigative psychology section, who dealt with some of South Africa’s worst serial murderers and rapists, Dr Gerard Labuschagne, interviewed the so-called Facebook rapist, Thabo Bester, in 2011.

“I found him to be a smart guy, intelligent, very well spoken,” said Labuschagne on Newzroom Afrika. “Bester is the kind of person who, if he applied his knowledge and skills in a good way, probably would have been quite successful.”

Bester is on the run after an audacious escape from a Mangaung prison last year, where he was serving a life sentence for rape and murder.

“He said he had a very rough upbringing and childhood. But a lot of people have rough upbringings and childhoods, so that’s no excuse for going off and raping people,” Labuschagne said.

During Bester’s trial in 2011, he broke down in tears and told the court he had been raped by his grandmother’s friend and raped several times by a man who promised to look after him when he was young. He would be sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of two women and the murder of his girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu.

He would lure models and victims by using multiple aliases promising lucrative modelling jobs. However, he would pounce on his victims, stealing their belongings and some attacks led to rape.

“His con story was more sophisticated as he used Facebook. He would meet his victims and spend time with them so it was high-risk and more complicated,” said Labuschagne.

“He’s a con man, so if ‘Thabo Bester’ isn’t his real name, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Bester’s financial crimes seem to have worsened since he was imprisoned in 2011.

GroundUp revealed he was running a multimillion-rand business from inside his cell, while making audacious video calls where he can be seen dressed in a suit pretending to be in New York, when in fact he was in jail.

“[When I interviewed him in 2011] he was not at the level of what we’re seeing now, and it seems he’s done a lot better in prison than he did out of prison in terms of the financial crimes. When he was free, he would lure people to steal their laptop and phones — very petty theft and robbery,” said Labuschagne.

“However, it seems he has a financial backer. The media has been reporting about a woman who is possibly in some relationship with him that probably helped him get this going.”

The woman Labuschagne referred to is reportedly celebrity doctor Dr Nandipha Magudumana —  a Mail & Guardian Top 200 young South African finalist in 2018.

Magudumana has been reportedly tied to Bester since his escape, living together in a mansion in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, before they hurriedly moved out and allegedly made a run for it last week.

Magudumana has been slammed on her Facebook profile, with people posting messages on her wall detailing their disappointment and sadness with her allegedly harbouring a murderer and rapist.

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