Cape Town – G4S, the security company that manages Mangaung maximum security prison where Thabo Bester was incarcerated, has reportedly questioned its exclusion from the parliamentary briefing on the Facebook rapist’s controversial escape.
Bester escaped from the Mangaung facility last year, but his jailbreak was only recently discovered and he is now on the run.
On Monday, the company said it had written to Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services requesting a formal invitation to appear before the committee.
According to The Citizen, the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services will meet with the Department of Correctional Services (DSC) on Tuesday to be briefed on the escape.
“At this stage the committee is only aware of the information that it gathered from media reports about the alleged death in a fire of the inmate which is now alleged to have been a scam with the new allegations that he escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein.
“We have scheduled an urgent meeting on Tuesday at 10:00,” the report quoted committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe as saying.
G4S said, however, that it was not issued an invitation to take part in the meeting by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, Times Live reported.
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“From the outset of the events that occurred on 3 May 2022 at the Mangaung Correctional Centre, G4S Correction Services has fully co-operated with various investigations by the relevant authorities and continues to do so.
“G4SCS is bound by statutory obligations in the Correctional Services Act and is therefore unable to issue public statements on the events or its co-operation with the subsequent investigations.
“Therefore G4SCS would welcome the opportunity to engage with the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice and correctional services and has written to the committee requesting that it issues a formal invitation to G4SCS (SA) to appear before the committee to address this matter under parliamentary privilege,” the report quoted the security company as saying.
Sunday World reported that it was currently not clear why G4S was not invited to the meeting by either the department or the committee.
The report said it was also not known whether the company would be invited to any future meetings on the matter.
In 2022 Correctional Services reported that Bester’s cell had caught fire and the body in it was burnt beyond recognition.
It’s now been determined that the body was not Bester’s as assumed.
Since his escape, Bester and his celebrity doctor girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana have been living a high life making millions through a construction company.
The Fidelity Service Group has offered a R100 000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Bester.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
