Thabo Bester Nabbed

Tanzanian authorities have

confirmed the arrest of Thabo Bester a

fugitive from the South African justice

system bester dubbed the Facebook rapist

for his crimes is reported to have been

arrested in Tanzania after escaping from

the correctional center in

bloemfontein in May 2022.

the whereabouts of runaway inmate Thabo

Bester have been confirmed South African

media Outlets were the first to confirm

that he was in Tanzania and under police

custody the spokesperson for the

Tanzanian police force David Misime has

since confirmed the arrest of Thabo in

the country's northern city of Arusha

police say he was apprehended alongside

Dr Nandi his partner and

traveling companion and Juan Zachary

Alberto believed by some to be a

Mozambican national authorities say

Communications of illegal nature are

ongoing both locally and internationally

this is in line with an earlier

statement by the South African

authorities that the country's officials

were headed to Tanzania to process

Thabo's extradition it is unknown when

exactly The Fugitive enter Tanzania or

where he was headed to what is known is

that he has been on the Run since his

escape from jail became public last

month

Meanwhile a South African delegation

will travel to Tanzania tomorrow to

begin the extradition processes for

Bester and Dr Nandi

All relevant authorities

in Tanzania which include the national

Commission of police in Tanzania and

Interpol that figurative are being

processed in the Tanzanian

a criminal justice system.

I've also had a telephone discussion and

call with the Minister of Justice in

Tanzania who has confirmed to us of

their cooperation and willingness to

help in the process to bring them to

South Africa as speedly as possible

an official delegation from the South

Africa comprises of senior officials

from the police

Justice and Correctional Services will

depart for Tanzania tomorrow

they will be received and assisted by

the office of the High Commissioner in

Tanzania

who is representing South Africa there

we are confident that we'll receive

maximum cooperation from our sister

Nation Tanzania to assist us to bring

these figurative to Justice it was found

when they have been arrested that

they're in the country illegal

they were found they were spotted by the

people that are working with South

Africa and they were followed as they

leave the hotel in this black S SUV

and they were heading for the border of

the other country they were living

they were living the the Tanzania

actually were leaving Dar es Salaam and

they were followed and until they were

found in in Arusha

it was also discovered there that they

have several passports with developed

names.

Correctional Services the minister uh

recently said that this whole situation

is an embarrassment

um but more so what does it say about

how easily uh criminals who perhaps have

access to resources or money

um can maneuver and and sort of you know

jump the system uh the perception that

it also creates for other criminals or

would-be criminals and the public in

general

um it just tells a different story to

what South African thought a

correctional facilities in South Africa

looks like

um it it now reflects as if for one to

go to jail is better to even uh when

compared to staying at home unemployed

because you can you have all the

luxuries in prison you can even run a

business you can buy a way out so

remember we're dealing with rational

thinkers offender traditional thinkers

by Nature so now they are busy

calculating if I do hit and run if I

session grab if I'm involved in cash

Transit I might get with 3 million and

I'll live my best life in prison and

somebody will think I'm in prison of

which I'm not in prison so it's just us

what just just open the can of worms

with regard to what goes on in presence

this definitely tests the justice system

but could this be a positive in that I

would assume that there are Lessons

Learned but what lessons have been

learned from this and and could things

then be made better from the situation

best lesson learned is that the

privatization does not stop corruption

because South Africans thought um most

corrupt prisons are state-owned from

this the experience is that on even the

privatized one are more corrupt the

second lesson is what our Criminal

Justice System particularly the

functionality of Correction of

correctional centers it has collapsed

there's no management they organize

crime syndicates are running these

centers on our behalf so money the third

the third lesson is what money can buy

whatever you want to get from prison and

again it takes time for our own system

to even reflect or tell South Africa of

what really goes on into our prison

because I don't believe Correctional

Services became aware of the whole

debacle last month particularly with the

autopsy reports and so forth

particularly with the possible Escape

because it looks like they knew this was

a well-kept secret and which what now it

makes South Africa more vulnerable

because when you feel like correctional

centers are there to

um house or take away offenders from

communities they don't necessarily take

them away they do just keep them safe

somewhere and lie to victims so it has

instilled more fear and more frustration

so it will take South Africa quite some

time and more multiple resources and

multiple stage as stakeholder engagement

when it comes to regaining trust

regaining understanding and regaining

um having vision of our correctional

centers because this requires a whole

system review and which requires a lot

of money as well I mean you know you

bring into into it all you know the

department for example like home Affairs

you know where you you would you would

think that a death certificate would you

know give light into a situation what do

you think about this disjointed approach

by the police Ministry Home Affairs

Correctional Services justice department

um you know when when dealing with uh

situations like this I mean these are

departments that should be you know

working like a well-oiled machine that

should be working together in Synergy

but clearly this this wasn't the case

here

it wasn't the case every man for himself

if correctional services for example

suspected a foreplay they could have

um lies with sister departments that

deals with issues of victim empowerment

and victim safety but it's like

everybody for himself and everybody has

to watch their back so there's no

coordination there's no integrated

approach it is there on paper but in

true reality everybody does their own

thing you can look into how this man

escaped or how this man enriched

Tanzania it details a whole different

story of how level of organized crime

and how you can buy your way out into

another country they are saying there

their passport for example were not

stemmed that talks to other

administrative Monopoly and

discretionary powers that are available

at these customs and and in our borders

where we give certain individual more

power to take part the decision and with

that we forget long-standing issues of

salaries and working conditions that

when Tabo besta for example approaches

such with a lot of money obviously such

a president due to working conditions

and lack of resources they are likely to

allow such and another Factor pressure

from organized crime so let me first you

realize that turbo did not work alone in

this one and I I was wondering if we

were going to find him alive because

this implicates a whole lot of

departments imagine how many officials

at Customs yet to pay how many

um officials in South Africa year to pay

and this also correlates to because

South Africa has been questioning how

did the group does the bushiri issue how

did they leave South Africa now he tells

us what it's easier to leave South

Africa it is so much easier to leave

South Africa and that is why and I wanna

I wanna actually expand on this

particular point I mean you talk about

about the fact that you know that it

implicates it possibly implicates so

many people do you have faith that you

know Heads Will Roll because it's clear

that they they were never operating uh

alone pester and um and and the doctor

um you know you're talking about the the

public needing to

um begin to trust again and and how can

we do so when we see these kinds of uh

incidents and I suppose the start would

be for his to role and see that there

are repercussions but do you have faith

that that that that will actually happen

with the way

um the media attention this story

received South Africa is waiting and the

law enforcement should not even play

date here South Africa should know every

little detail and every step to be taken

when it comes to making heads for

remember

one how did he get out of prison

approximately 20 officials should be

held accountable approximately yeah and

living the country approximately how

many Buddhas did you cross how many uh

areas did he hotels and so forth yeah so

there are many many now I I don't have

faith because

the way it was protected from the

beginning

I doubt why would you because they

realized taboo was not there but they

kept quiet it's only after that story

broke out it's only after that

magnificent a journalism that was shared

with South Africa the groundbreaking

report that now people started coming to

say yeah we have autopsy report yeah and

now we wanted to know since he was

declared dead on the home Affairs who

went there and what is written the

natural cause or what and again

protection did the amount of protection

it shows that this is deeper than we

think this is a Syndicate because for

Turbo to even be able to cross the

border it's what facilitation of

multiple stakeholders this is an

institution we might be talking of

turbobesta but this is an institution

because the story doesn't even make

sense and this is a new um if we were to

to analyze crime this is a new pattern

of crime analysis where now it involves

extensive intelligence and normally we

will be told of uneducated people

females being involved and loot into

Canal activities now we're getting a

different angle of a degree holder being

part of this so you can imagine I

wouldn't be surprised if

um

um figures political figures yeah and

the leaders in their own rights are

involved in this one I have interesting

interior will certainly of course keep

an eye on the story and this this case