APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Fugitive South African murderer Thabo Bester has been re-arrested in Tanzania following weeks of evading law enforcement agents, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola announced on Saturday.
Lamola told journalists in Pretoria that Bester was nabbed in the Tanzanian city of Arusha on Friday night together with his South African girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana and a Mozambican accomplice.
“We can confirm that Thabo Bester and his accomplice Dr Magudumana have been arrested in Tanzania,” Lamola said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said the arrest was made possible through cooperation between the South African Police Service, Interpol and Tanzanian police.
“They were spotted leaving Dar es Salaam and were followed until they got to Arusha,” Cele said.
He added: “It was found that they had several passports and not a single one of these has been stamped in South Africa and Tanzania.”
The pair has been on the run since Bester’s escape became public last month.
Bester, who was serving a life sentence for murder, escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022 after it was initially believed he had committed suicide by setting himself alight in his cell.
However, the Department of Correctional Services, which originally declared him dead, confirmed that the charred body found in his cell was not that of the convicted murderer and rapist.
Dubbed the “Facebook rapist”, Bester has in fact been alive and at large for the last nine months.
JN/APA