Live Blog | Day 2 of the justice and correctional services portfolio committee briefing on Bester escape

Following an explosive first day where G4S was subpoenaed to appear before the justice and correctional services portfolio committee to account on Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester's escape from the Mangaung prison on May 3 2022. Day two of the inquiry commenced with a debate between a committee member and G4S director of care and justice services in SA, Cobus Groenewoud about why it should take 48 hours to obtain the name of the inmate who was moved from cell 35 before Bester was moved to that cell.  

Delay tactics 

“What is quite problematic is that I don’t understand why everything is being prepared. I mean retrieving the name of an inmate who was moved from cell 35 is a simple matter of retrieving information that you already have. What do you need 48 hours for? Do you want to doctor these documents? We are preparing a name? No chair we cannot do that. That is a delay tactic that cannot be allowed by the committee,” member of the National Assembly, Xola Nqola said.

Gronewoud responded by alleging that the company needed the time for administrative processes.

"This is not a delay tactic sir, we left this committee meeting last night at six o'clock and the majority of the information requested is in the administrative department of the Mangaung correctional center. Those staff members work office hours we did last night try to reach those staff members to start compiling the documents. We are now in the next working day. So it's not a matter of delaying, it's a matter of not being able to reach administrative staff after leaving this committee at six o'clock and resuming this morning at nine o'clock."

Two police officers flagged Dr. Nandipha Magudumana's suspicious behaviour

Retired constitutional court justice Edwin Cameron commended SA police officers who stopped Dr. Nandipha Magudumana from collecting corpses in Bloemfontein in 2022.

"Constable Lekgoa, who was [stationed] at the Naval Hill police station, noticed that Dr Nandipha Magudumana had been persistently coming to collect corpses and he put a stop [to it].

“This triggered an urgent application by Dr Magudumana — not in Bloemfontein where deaths occurred, not where the refusal occurred — to North Gauteng High Court. A brigadier in charge of legal services in Bloemfontein got an SMS on an afternoon and she intervened and urgently contacted state attorney in Pretoria and got a notice of opposition put in, and that answering affidavit which was lodged in August opened up matters for the department,” Cameron said.

Degradation of Control 

Previously ranked in the top seven of prisons in the country, ANC MP, Richard Dyantyi raised questions about Mangaung Correctional Center’s ranking. 

“G4S presented a narrative that Mangaung is an excellent center. That they rank in top seven of prisons in the country. 

“We thought the Thabo Bester was the exception but we now know it’s not,” Dyantyi said. 

When was your last oversight to the prison, Dyantyi asked Cameron. 

Cameron said the last inspection at the Mangaung prison was at the end of June 2021. 

“We were there 10 months before this occurred. The terrible conditions we see now say that Thabo Bester wasn’t a rare event, it’s symptomatic of degradation of management control. It wouldn’t have happened without degradation of every control function you should have in the prison,” Cameron says. 

Minister Ronald Lamola’s inaction 

ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng asks Cameron whether minister of justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola failed to act in the Bester matter.

Cameron, who wrote to Lamola on October 26 says he wouldn’t say so but says the letter simply informed Lamola of his suspicions. 

“My letter said this seems beyond belief but indications point to the conclusion that this wasn’t Bester who died. We couldn’t point it as fact. We have a difficulty in Mangaung that prisoners don’t always tell us the truth. We have a lot of complaints and most are true and some aren’t. We have difficulty of not always knowing what we’re told is true.” 

Ramolobeng asks if Cameron wrote as a fact that it wasn’t Bester who died during the May 3 fire, but rather a suspicion. 

“You poised the letter as not being certain but a thinking on the basis of preliminary report that suggests there was something fishy.” 

"Spikey” relations 

Cameron said the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services has a “spikey” relationship with the national commissioner for correctional services. 

This was in response to questions of the Free State and Northern Cape regional commissioner Subashini Moodley being unresponsive in the Bester escape from the Mangaung prison last year. 

Asked by EFF MP Yoliswa Yako whether it was usual for regional commissioners not to act when concerns are raised about inmates, Cameron said: “Another spikiness. We have complex relations between the national commissioner and his regional commissioners. The KwaZulu-Natal commissioner is a conspicuous point. Some regional commissioners are better able to respond to us.” 

Yako asked whether Lamola kicked butt, Cameron responded: “I would say yes.”

No ID

During day 2 of the inquiry looking into how Bester escaped from the Mangaung prison, it emerged that he did not have a South African ID. When asked how SAPS was able to confirm that it was indeed Bester who was arrested by Tanzanian officials during the early hours of Saturday morning, police national commissioner Fanie Masemola revealed that he was positively identified through his fingerprints sent over to SA authorities.

"It's been discovered this person doesn't have an ID and the criminal record was the only one able to get us to identify him," he said.

Justice and correctional services portfolio chairperson Gratitude Magwanishe asked if Bester was a SA citizen or foreigner. He further asked how SAPS was able to verify he's South African if he didn't have an ID.

Masemola responded by saying: "The person who served at Mangaung is the same person who was arrested in Tanzania. There are two other Thabo Besters with IDs and this one doesn’t."