My time with Thabo
My first encounter with Thabo Bester was the day he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu.
Little did I know this would turn into a three-year acquaintance with the man who would years later plan one of the most elaborate prison escapes the country had ever seen.
In August 2012, as Bester’s murder trial came to an end, I was asked by my editor to cover the sentencing at the Western Cape High Court. I was standing in for a colleague who couldn’t make it to court that day.
I was still a young journalist, finding my feet in the newsroom and in courtrooms.
This was only my second high-profile court case; the first was Jacob Humphreys, the Blackheath taxi driver who killed 10 schoolchildren at the Buttskop level crossing.
Ironically, Bester and Humphreys later became prison pals at Drakenstein Correctional Centre where, according to Bester, they would often pray and attend church together.
Bester’s court appearance was brief and once his fate was sealed I returned to the office to write my piece. As most court cases go, this would mark the end of that story. Or so I thought.
The next morning I received a call at the office and the voice on the other side very casually said: "Hi. It's Thabo Bester here. You guys wrote about me and I would like to speak to the reporter to give my side of the story."
He even identified himself as the Facebook Rapist.
I quickly grabbed a pen and a notebook so we could proceed with the telephone interview, but he wasn’t prepared to speak over the phone, instead he wanted to meet in person.
The next day, on a cold and wet Saturday morning, my friend and fellow journalist Tshego Lepule and I drove to Drakenstein Prison in Paarl for our first exclusive interview with Bester.
The price was cheap – a few toiletry items for answers to any questions had. Our plan was to keep the interview very casual and conversational so we could get as much out of him in the limited time we had.
This was no regular visit, so we did not take notepads or pens and we had to remember everything he told us.
Bester was affable. Composed and soft-spoken, he encouraged us to ask anything we wanted.
He had many aliases so my first question, what is your real name? To which he laughed and replied: “you can call me Bester”.
It wasn’t long before Bester, a self-confessed ladies man and hustler, admitted to killing Nomfundo, but claims it was by accident.
Bester stabbed Nomfundo in the chest at a Cape Town B&B where they had been staying, leaving a do not disturb sign on the door and flying to Durban.
He also admitted to committing fraud and said he did so “to survive”.
However, Bester was adamant that he was not a rapist: “It is not like I wake up in the morning sexually frustrated…I’m a father, I have daughters and would not want anyone raping them,” he told us.
According to Bester, his life hit rock bottom the day he was sentenced. He felt that a life sentence was “a very long time” considering that he’s “not really a violent person”.
He told us he was taking anti-depressants, seeing a prison psychologist three times a week and he was on suicide watch.
We had to become human lie detectors, having to sift the truth from the lies - one of those liegstories being that he fathered a child with actress Pearl Thusi.
What was true though, is that Bester - a once well-connected and charismatic businessman who lived the high life - was not ready to accept his new life behind bars.
Bester liked to name-drop, and during our interview he casually mentioned names of celebrities or influential figures to give off the impression that he knew and moved in the same circles, so as to be taken seriously.
What struck me (Tshego) the most was that even though there were two of us, he made sure to look each of us in the eye when answering a question - a tactic that made it seem like it was a casual conversation between two people on the outside instead of two journalists crammed in a booth looking at him through a foggy partition
Our one visit turned into three when we flew to Johannesburg over the next two weeks where we interview him at Leeuwkop Correctional Centre.
Bester’s notoriety made him a well-known figure inside and outside prison. This was confirmed when one of the prison guards jokingly referred to us as “more ladies coming to visit” Bester.
Bester continued to contact us long after our last visit and would give us constant updates on new high-profile inmates, like Oscar Pistorius and Czech gangster Radovan Krejcir.
In hindsight, I can’t say I’m surprised that he pulled off such an elaborate escape plan, he could never accept life behind bars.
Bester's prison break has been years in the making and my guess is he planned to break out from the moment he was locked up.
megan.baadjies@inl.co.za