Johannesburg - Top management of the SAPS appeared before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Thursday to answer questions from MPs regarding their handling of their investigations into the Thabo Bester prison escape.
MPs slammed the top police officials who appeared unprepared and were unsure who would lead their presentation before the fiery committee, which has already grilled G4S senior officials, Integriton, the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) this week.
Getting answers from the top police officials was almost like getting water out of a stone, as they dithered and provided vague responses as MPs from various political parties posed question after question during the second day of the committee meetings.
The MPs tried to get to the bottom of how he escaped and why police acted as ineffectively as they did when they had information as early as July 2022 which showed he could have escaped.
MPs asked the top management of the SAPS why they did not act after acquiring enough information to confirm that Bester had indeed escaped and why the public was never forewarned after DNA findings showed Bester’s supposed burnt body did not match with his mother’s DNA.
The police had also failed to bring in Bester’s girlfriend Dr Nandipha Magudumana for questioning, despite the police, by their own admission, being the ones who raised the red flag when Magudumana claimed three bodies at mortuaries in a short space of time.
One of these bodies was the body from Cell 35, which had been brought into the prison to create the belief that it was Bester’s body.
Another body she claimed had been found floating in a river. She was not arrested nor questioned, but police did successfully block her from claiming the body in Cell 35 body.
‘YOU KNEW, YET YOU DID NOTHING’
EFF MP Yoliswa Yako slammed the police management.
“Your role was to investigate and make recommendations, arrest, you had information, you had forensic reports, you had answers, you had a body, you had another body and yet you did nothing.”
BESTER HAD NO ID
Police commissioner General Fannie Masemola told the committee that Bester did not have an issued ID.
This was later confirmed by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in a press conference on Friday, who said Bester was born at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto in June 1986.
Motsoaledi said Bester’s own mother, Maria Mabaso, only obtained an ID in 2002 when she was 37, after her mother, Johanna Bester, died.
Bester had fled home by then, and Mabaso, along with her other three children, were issued with ID books after a Home Affairs probe.
Masemola explained, however, that they confirmed Bester’s identity on the back of his 2012 rape and murder conviction, explaining that Bester was in the SAPS criminal database, despite having no ID.
“Bester is a South African by criminal record,” said Masemola.
He also explained that the fingerprints that were sent to the SAPS by Tanzanian police matched the fingerprints they had for Bester.
DNA FINDINGS
Police told MPs that they conducted a DNA test between the body found in Cell 35 and Bester’s mother, but there was no match.
Police officials said the DNA findings were made on July 1, 2022, however, the case of escape was only opened on January 16, 2023 by DCS.
The MPs wanted to know what was done by the police between the time they found out that the body was not that of Bester and the time the escape case against Bester was opened.
Police officials blamed their lack of action towards this finding on pending investigations at the time and also the ongoing court case regarding the body, between Magudumana and the SAPS.
ACDP MP Steven Swart said that the public should have been informed much earlier that a “serial murderer and rapist” was at large.
Masemola acknowledged that the police should have indeed notified the public earlier.
LACK OF COOPERATION FROM G4S
MPs also asked about allegations made by a prisoner who claimed that he had been called to clean the cell following the fire which broke out in cell 35.
Police denied that the crime scene had been tampered with, however, MP’s continued to highlight that the fire was said to have happened at 3am and the SAPS only arrived at the scene at 6am, which means that anything could have happened during that time.
Police also revealed that the detective who was present at the scene for investigation retired in November/December 2022, which raised further concern regarding the accuracy of the investigation process which did not include the first police responder at the crime scene.
The police officials also did a lot of finger-pointing, calling out G4S for their lack of cooperation during the investigation process, delays in providing crucial documents and information surrounding what had happened on the day of the fire and the days to follow.
Lieutenant General Brenda Motswenyane confirmed that the police had indeed struggled to get information.
“We got Section 205 against G4S on the documentation that we wanted and further on, we communicated through the DCS,” she said.
A Section 205 allows for the investigators to have the right to access information which is not in the public domain or from a particular place or person.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach questioned why they needed a Section 205 to get information, bringing into question their capabilities, and further stated that they were not supposed to have any issues acquiring the information or documents which they needed.
FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS
In her battle with the police for the Cell 35 body, Magudumana submitted a fraudulent affidavit which had been stamped by a police officer that has since been dismissed. She used the affidavit in her court battle, but police did not charge her for perjury.
She also lied about being in a customary marriage with Bester, despite being in a civil union with Dr Mkhuseli Magudumana, but again police did not charge her.
The police top brass admitted that Magudumana had used an affidavit which she got from Limpopo.
They said the matter was under investigation to find out what the circumstances around him signing the affidavit for her were.
ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng posed the question to the police about the fraudulent documents used by Magudumana in her court application, to which Lt-Gen Motswenyane confirmed that the police officer who authorised Magudumana’s affidavit had been dismissed from SAPS before the affidavit was stamped and signed.
She said that the alleged fraud was being investigated.
PRIVATE JET TO SA
Magudumana and Bester were flown to South Africa from Tanzania using an expensive private jet.
Police were asked why a private jet was necessary to transport the alleged criminals back to the country.
“If police had to transport all the people from that side to here after the team met the Tanzanian team, then it was established that for any deportation, let us not involve the police. When you deport anyone from a country, you deport the person properly and the people responsible for immigration are the ones that come on board, but you don't deport through police, police can assist in the process,” said Masemola.
Police Minister Bheki Cele added that the use of the jet was apparently part of the negotiations with Tanzanian authorities.
“It was part of the negotiations with the officials on the other side that it would be their pleasure that they steer how things were done,” he said.
A heated exchange between Breytenbach and Cele also took place regarding some of the decisions made by the police throughout this process.
“It's an absolute disgrace that the victims of this man were not warned, not prepared and not protected. It's an absolute disgrace and you should hang your head in shame, all of you.
“This is no way to treat people,” said Breytenbach.
“If, while you were so busy protecting the secrecy of your investigation, and deciding not to warn the South African public who incidentally expect all of us here to protect them and we have all failed all of us, if Bester had murdered another woman, or had raped another woman, then what would you have said then?” Breytenbach asked.
Cele responded that he was not a speculator and that did not happen.
Though some of the MP’s commended the police on their successful deportation of both Bester and his accomplice, they could not hide their frustrations as the top brass members of the police attempted to duck and dive from giving direct and clear answers to some of the questions which were posed regarding their investigations.
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