An employee of the G4S security company at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein will appear in court soon after being arrested in connection with the escape of convicted serial rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.
Bester escaped from the facility in May last year after faking his death. Sources say the arrested employee was not supposed to be on duty on the day of Bester’s escape.
He has been detained at Park Road police holding cells in Bloemfontein. The man will face charges related to aiding a convict to escape.
Sophie Mokoena updates on Bester’s return to SA:
Meanwhile, the former controller at the centre Tatolo Setlai says Bester should be incarcerated in a high security correctional facility.
The comment of Setlai, who is also the retired head of the Grootvlei Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, comes as a process gets under way to return Bester to the country after his re-arrest in Arusha, Tanzania.
Setlai says he believes Bester is not a flight risk unless someone assists him. Bester faked his death and then escaped prison, allegedly with the help of other people.
Setlai says identifying the body of a prisoner should include a DNA test.
“The manner in which procedures were followed all these years, they’re correct procedures, to take the fingerprints of the deceased and to compare with the detention warrant and to make sure that the same person who died, is the one who the fingerprints appear on the detention warrant. This one, because burnt beyond recognition, so maybe the only alternative will be a DNA test, as they did. I think they did a marvelous job, the police.”
