Johannesburg — Two women who were scammed by Thabo Bester opened up about their experience and how they felt about his escape, saying that if law enforcement had acted sooner, some of his victims would still be alive.
Bester, the convicted murderer, also known as the “Facebook rapist”, escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein on 3 May 2022 when he faked his death in a fire and was recaptured and arrested in Tanzania earlier in April.
Speaking to eNCA, two women — who were not named to protect their identity — opened up about their experiences in 2011, prior to Bester’s arrest.
They explained that Bester was fronting as a producer recruiting TV presenters for a new show, saying that the scam looked legit.
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“It was two full days of auditions, workshops, networking, judges, and panels and he was walking through the auditions, interviewing all of us casually as the producer of this new TV show,” said one victim.
They began getting suspicious of the scam when Bester requested to meet the ladies alone. One victim said that she had alerted the police about the scam some 12 years ago, adding that if law enforcement acted sooner, some of Bester’s victims would still be alive today.
The pair were both stunned when they learned that Bester had escaped from prison.
The father of another of Bester’s victims, Katlego Mpholo, who was identified as the man found burnt in Bester’s prison cell, allowing the convict to escape in May last year, recently asked the public to give the family time and space to grieve.
— Batho Mpholo (@BathoChief) April 26, 2023
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
