The head of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS), retired Justice Edwin Cameron, described the escape of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, as beyond credulity.
Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison, early last year, following a staged scene where he supposedly burned to death.
Bester is now under 24-hour surveillance at the Kgoshi Mampuru Correctional Centre, a C-Max prison in Pretoria after returning to South Africa from Tanzania early this morning with his girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana.
The JICS is appearing before Parliament’s Justice and Correctional Services committee to shed light on Bester’s escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre managed by G4S.
Cameron told the committee that even as facts emerged while they conducted their own investigation, it was hard to believe what had transpired.
“We know much more now, but wasn’t clear as facts clear, even as received post mortem it seemed beyond credulity there was a faked scene and an escape,” says Cameron.
Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services briefed on Thabo Bester’s escape
