Cape Town – The father of Katlego Mpholo is demanding answers after his son was identified as the burnt body found in convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester’s cell 35 at Mangaung Correctional Centre last year.
A shattered Batho Mpholo told eNCA that he believed there was more to the story than what the family had been told by the police.
The identity of the deceased man was discovered through a DNA test match with the deceased mother.
He had been missing for more than a year.
The 51-year-old father from Tembisa, east of Johannesburg said police told the family that his son had overdosed on drugs and collapsed in town in Bloemfontein and was taken to hospital where he died.
“From what we see, when we reported him missing and the information that we are getting that he collapsed in town, it is not true.
“Again, how did Thabo Bester get the whole of my son’s body if he was in a government mortuary?
“And I can tell you the mother, the grandmother and the other family members in Bloemfontein visited several mortuaries after reporting him missing. There was no sign of him in any mortuary. But why now? Why now… I need nothing but the truth,” said Mpholo.
Mpholo said he had last seen his son around April last year.
“It all started when I realised that Katlego was no longer active on social media and I couldn’t get hold of him on the phone. I then called his mother in Bloemfontein who said she had last seen him a few days ago,” he said.
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The mother also called Katlego’s grandmother, with whom he lived, and she revealed that she had not seen him for a little over a month.
That was when the family decided to open a missing person case at the police station.
“Nothing happened since April last year up until last week when the mother received a call from the police saying they are going to do a DNA test – even though they didn’t give information as to against which body. They did the test. A few days later, she got another call from the Pretoria forensic people saying the tests were not properly done, they are coming to do further tests.
“They came to do the tests and then yesterday (Thursday) she got a call from the police in Bloemfontein saying the results were out… At 15:00, they came and took her to the mother (grandmother). That’s when they broke the news that the DNA had come out positive – even though still they did not give details as to against which body,” Mpholo said.
He said the police only informed them on Friday that the DNA test was against the body that was found in Bester’s prison cell.
Mpholo said that police told them Katlego collapsed in town and was taken to hospital where he diedand was taken to a government mortuary.
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“As to how the body left the government mortuary, we don’t know. And I don’t believe their story because they are giving us a perception that Katlego had been roaming the streets of Bloemfontein,” said Mpholo.
Mpholo said Katlego was a father of two and he was supposed to turn 32 on the 18th of May.
He said the family was in shock.
“We are very shocked. It’s mentally draining, it’s spiritually draining. The mother can’t even talk. I tried to call her this morning and she couldn’t even talk. I’m talking to her through her sister. She is in shock,” he said.
Talking to Newzroom Afrika, Mpholo said:“We never thought that wherever he is that he is no more, we had hoped that we would see him alive, vibrant as he was but after receiving the news on Friday and Saturday… I couldn’t sleep”.
He said that he believed his son had been kidnapped.
“My own analysis of this, it looks like they kidnapped my son long ago, they killed him and kept him for a long time until the body decomposed so certain signs on the body can disappear then they burnt him. This seems like a mastermind plan that was done long before we heard the news,” said Mpholo.
According to IOL, an autopsy report which was done on the charred body had shown that Mpholo died due to blunt force trauma to the head and was already dead before the prison caught fire.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
