RedHanded - Episode 309 - Thabo Bester: Twisted Firestarter

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

At 2am, on the 3rd of May last year – inmates at Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were woken up by an explosion. Word spread that Thabo Bester, the infamous “Facebook Rapist”, had set himself and his cell on fire. And all that remained after the dramatic blaze were a lighter, and a body, burnt beyond recognition. But that’s far from the end of the story. With daily revelations from the trial still hitting headlines, expect a farcical morgue-robbing scheme, a massive-scale web of fraud conducted from inside a prison cell, and a glamorous celebrity doctor who’s not quite what she seems.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed, where today we are on the trail of a case. The trail? Yes. We are on the trail of a case that is still, at this moment, hitting the headlines. Unfurling. Doing some unfolding.

All over the place. Like a gymnastics ribbon. Or a shit towel swan. Towel origami swan on your hotel room bed. Why do they still do that? So weird and dated and gross. I like them. You can make them have little chats. That is the last thing I expected you to say. But look at that. Six years in, still learning.

So there you go. So yes, lots of unfolding, lots of unfurling, lots of headline crunching to do today. We're off to South Africa. We're at 2am on the 3rd of May last year, so 2022. Inmates at Mangaun Prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were woken up by an explosion. The smell of petrol filled the building and prisoners pushed panic buttons as smoke billowed out of the solitary confinement wing. According to prison nurses, a fire had blasted out from prison cell 35, and its occupant, Tabo Bester, was dead. Bester was known as the Facebook rapist,

for a string of crimes he'd committed through the 2000s. That, as well as sexual assault, included massive-scale financial fraud and murder. But now, a charred body was all that remained in his prison cell, disfigured beyond recognition. And that intro might sound as though it's packed full of spoilers, like we've already ruined the dramatic climax of the story already. But that's not the end of the story.

Nor was it the end of Tabo Bester. This case has been gripping the people of South Africa for the last few years. And the public have been shocked by every new morgue-robbing, prison-scamming, bribe-taking detail. Even now, new and ever crazier revelations in the ongoing trial are hitting the headlines daily. So, fasten your seatbelt for the story of one of Africa's most infamous criminals and one of the most relentless, audacious pieces of shit that we have covered in quite some time. But don't get comfy, because this story starts with a tragedy from the very beginning. Sixteen-year-old Maria Mabasu and her cousin were leaving their poor town to visit Maria's sister in Johannesburg.

The girls ran for the bus and just missed it. So they decided to hitch a ride. A local shopkeeper picked them up and once the rural roads became quieter the man pulled over and assaulted both of the girls. After Maria was raped, the man threw her to the side of the road leaving her for dead. Somehow Maria pulled through but as a young black girl with little means and minimal education she wasn't able to seek any help to deal with what had happened to her.

And weeks later, Maria discovered that she was pregnant. Worst case scenario. Truly, truly, truly, truly. Nine months later, on the 13th of June 1986, Taba Bester was born at Kisani Barangonath Hospital in Johannesburg. Soon, his mum Maria had no choice but to go out and find work. And when baby Tabo was just one,

she left him with his grandparents. Maria visited him as often as she could, but things were quite tense within the family. And one day, after a flaming row, Tabo's grandmother pushed Maria out of the house. Deciding that she wasn't welcome, Maria stopped going. And she didn't see Tabo again for almost 30 years.

Whether it was this domestic volatility, something deeper inside, or both, we'll never really know. But whatever the reason, little Tabo Bester was a grifter from the very start. At the age of four, Bester's grandfather found him with a wad of cash and asked him where he'd found it. And the boy said that the neighbour, Mrs Lowe, had given it to him. But when the family paid Mrs Lowe a visit, she had no idea that the money was missing. And then, when Bester was five, a furious bar owner turned up at the house to retrieve a bottle of coins that the boy had swiped from the pub. And his time at primary school was marked by non-stop truancy and rule-breaking.

At some point in his teenage years, Bester's unsteady foundations took another hit. His grandmother died from a stroke and he ran away from home. Tabo moved to Cape Town and his mother said later that this is where he fell in with a bad crowd. Violence and crime became foundational parts of Bester's teenage life. It's been reported that Bester started by defrauding the long-running hit TV show, Yo! TV. Now, we can't totally substantiate this, but whatever he did, we know that he was in juvie for fraud and several counts of burglary before the age of 17.

And that when Tabo got out, he settled into life as a career criminal. By 2005, in his mid-twenties, Bester had started a new scam that would become his calling card. He would pose as an international modelling scout on Facebook and seek out aspiring models. He'd get in touch and promise auditions and brand collaborations in return for a small fee to belong to the agency.

He would fly the would-be models out to meet him in a hotel. Needless to say, both the flights and the hotels were obtained through fraud. But it does make him look very convincing if he's buying you a flight in a hotel room. Now, obviously, it was all a con. And once the women got there, Bester would go up to their hotel rooms to rape and rob them. In 2009, Bester was convicted of fraud and served two years of a three-year sentence. But as soon as he was out, he got straight back on his bullshit and the cycle continued. Each time he did prison time, his offences got more calculated and more extreme.

Thabo started to charter private planes and luxury hotel rooms, all through smooth talking and mocked-up invoices. That seems too easy. I know, and this is also happening in like 2009, 2010. It's not like in the fucking 70s. Yeah, like online banking is a thing. In 2010,

Bester chartered a Beechcraft 1900 from the National Airways Corporation to fly him and 16 other people to Cape Town for four nights He produced receipts for 275,000 Rand later found to be fake, obviously

Thabo would fly himself friends and models all over the country and lived a seemingly unstoppable life of totally free luxury In May 2011 he even convinced the managers of ZAR Lounge nightclub in Cape Town that he was a member of the ANC, which is the African National Congress, a political party, and he was planning a birthday party for none other than Nelson Mandela himself. He just loves that place in Cape Town.

He loves that nightclub. Is it ZAR? Is it Z-A-R? We don't even know, but Nelson Mandela would because he loves it. So, once Bester had made that connection, he said that he was looking for ten models for promotional work to promote Nelson Mandela,

maybe? Yep. We need some shot girls. So, the lounge nightclub sorted it all out for him. Anything Nelson wants, Nelson gets. And it was also around this time that Bester met Nomfundo Tihulu. Nomfundo was a car saleswoman and aspiring model. After she sold Bester a BMW, all the while with him bullshitting that he was some sort of international talent scout,

the two of them got talking. And soon, they started dating. Now, Thabo was clearly a very good talker. And, very obviously, only getting more and more skilled in the business of fraud. Though, sexual assault was never far behind. Throughout his relationship with Namfondo Tihulu, he was continuing to meet more and more models, both through Facebook and using his ill-gotten connections. And in his wake, during those years, he left countless women raped, with their laptops, phones, jewellery and other valuables gone.

At the end of 2011, Bester was eventually charged for the robbery and rape of two women. The first had answered an advert on a magazine website looking for a presenter, a model. She heard back that her interview had been successful and was told to check into a specific hotel. There, she met Bester. And while she showered, he left her by duct tape and a knife. When he returned, he jumped on her and threatened her with the knife. He then brutally raped this woman and left with all of her belongings. The second woman that ended up with him being charged,

he had met through his girlfriend. When the three of them met for drinks, Tabo started flirting with her and a little later they met in secret and had consensual sex. But the next morning he raped and again robbed her of her phone, cash, watch and all of her cards. And through the press surrounding the arrest for these two crimes, Bester earned the moniker the Facebook Rapist. But while the investigation continued, the Facebook Rapist was released on bond. Why? Why? There are many things that are complicated and wrong about the South African justice system.

And we have been here many times before. Yes. So, get this. The Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader, asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter.

Oh yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here. She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah. Higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals. They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry.

The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cone. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses.

I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. So, before he could be convicted, Tabo Bester, out on bond, committed his most vile crime to date. Though his relationship with the 26-year-old non-fondo was mostly long distance,

he has since said that she was the only person who stood by me during my ordeal with the law when everyone else had deserted me. Because you're a rapist. Shut up. He's such a fucking little pathetic dickhead. He's constantly like, I'm the victim, like nobody stood by me. And it's like, because you did a load of horrendous shit. What are you expecting? Oh my god, it gets so much worse later in the episode. You just want to kill him.

But despite Nomfondo's unwavering support, Tabo Besta was never going to win any Boyfriend of the Year awards. In September 2011, Besta and Nomfondo went on holiday to Sunset Beach, which is just north of Cape Town.

And soon enough, an argument over his ex-girlfriend's erupted. After an hours-long screaming match, Nonfondo eventually fell asleep. And when she did, Bester went to the kitchen to get a knife and started to rob her. He just can't help himself.

No, it seems that way, doesn't it? At around 2am, Nonfondo woke up and tried to stop him, but he stabbed her in the chest. As she bled profusely onto the bed, Bester tied her hands behind her back and started demanding that she tell him her laptop password. Numphondo didn't respond. At 7am, Bester left the hotel with his girlfriend's laptop and phone

and told the owner of the guesthouse not to wake her up until 2pm. Numphondo was, of course, already dead. In two trials, one in 2011 and one in 2012, Bester was charged for the two rapes and the murder of Nonfondo Tihulu. He pleaded guilty and begged the court

to take pity on him. He cited his rough childhood and framed his crimes as the only way for him to survive. You're not Jean Valjean. Like you're not stealing a loaf of bread to feed your starving son. Exactly. Like, I don't know how you can say that serial rape, large scale financial fraud and stealing private jets so that you can trick and con more women into being able to rape them and rob them how that's connected to like a some form of hand to mouth burglary situation yeah like a lab eye

yeah fuck off he's so he is just the worst he is the worst and um you know he really he really continues to layer these and i'm not saying that the things he says that happened to him and the fact that his childhood was rough are not true, but so are a lot of people's. Because he said in court that he too had been sexually abused as a child, that he'd been raped by his grandparents' friends, and that when he was a teenager on the streets, he'd been approached by a man offering shelter, who then proceeded to take him in and assault him.

Bester even said that he had been repeatedly assaulted while in juvenile detention. And like I said, this might all be true. But even as he pleaded guilty, Bester never took responsibility for what he had done. And like, you can check out this clip that we're going to play you where he seems to at first be getting close to some kind of humility, but he stops short. Instead, he starts saying that he could have gotten away with both the rapes and the murders if he'd just planned them properly, because he's so fucking smart.

Let's have a little listen, shall we? Because you've got to hear it from the horse's mouth. So that's the first thing, because I thought of that. That was the first thing to do, obviously, wake up the owners of the B&B and let them come, and then call the cops and get an ambulance there. But I thought if I do that, it's like me saying, okay, I did the murder, you understand? That is my reason of running from that point. But not taking this away, I also

feel that I am responsible for her death. Because if I did not bring the knife, she would not be dead. If I did not ask her to come, she would not be dead. So one thing I also feel like I read the papers and I feel like they're talking about somebody else.

I look at these charges and I don't think it's me. I really don't think it's me. That's why I pleaded guilty. And to the murder case, I can't plead guilty to murdering her because I did not intentionally want to kill her. But I can plead guilty on the fact of bringing a knife

into her presence. That I can plead guilty. And how she bringing a knife into her presence. That I can plead guilty. And how she got stabbed, I don't know. But I do, if there was, if I have to plead guilty in any regard there, I would plead guilty that I did bring the knife into the room and we had a fight and she got stabbed. To show that, to show that I don't feel that I was right. That you're responsible for a death, but not as a result of an intentional thing that you started out. I'm responsible for a death, yes.

That's 100% correct. I'm not responsible for killing her. I did not kill her. I'm sure if I wanted to kill her, I could have, I'm not a stupid person, I could have done it in a way that the cops wouldn't even know it was me. The rapes happened in a way that I did not know I was doing rape until I left the premises.

Because if I knew I was doing rape, I could have covered myself up by using certain methods so that my fingerprints were not there and etc. So it only became known to me that I did rape when I left. Oh my God. He's so annoying. It's unbelievable. He's like, I am responsible for her death 100%, but I didn't kill her. And when I was doing the rapes, I didn't realise they were rapes until I left, but I didn't rape anybody.

It's crazy. Yeah, he's like, if it was rape, I would have not left evidence. Yeah. So what you got to say about that? I would have got away with it too if it wasn't for my own stupidity. But I'm not stupid. I'm a genius. Now, in that same interview,

Tabo Bester also says that the murder was simple. Quote, We fight over a knife, somebody gets stabbed in the process. As if that's just something that happens every day. Taking a knife to your sleeping girlfriend. The first judge gave him 50 years for the two rapes and at his murder trial in 2012, Bester was handed a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. His mum, Maria, who was in the courtroom, collapsed when she heard the sentence, and was taken to hospital for a stroke.

Like, look, Maria, it's hard, because that's her son. And also, it must be particularly traumatic traumatic because he was born out of rape. Yeah, that's a good point. And now here he is in court convicted of rape. Yeah. And you are the connecting piece between all of these things. It's horrendous. So Bester was sent to Mangaung Prison,

a privately managed maximum security facility in Blomfontein, run by global private security firm G4S. And it's definitely painted by G4S as an upscale, super secure prison with smiling, obedient inmates and tough but fair, like Mary Poppins, staff. I love the idea of going to an upscale prison. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Explain G4S. I mean, go to Norway, that's an upscale prison. But actually, this prison was a lawless, brutal place,

rife with violence, corruption, torture, and multiple reports of forced injections of anti-psychotic drugs. At the time it was the second largest private prison in the world and it was the first private prison in South Africa brought in to tackle overcrowding. Still, life wasn't too shabby for Tabo Vesta. Whilst inside he bribed guards to get designer clothes to save him wearing prison scrubs.

He had a laptop and a phone with full internet access, just hanging out in his cell. And he used that internet access, connections and grifting nows to commit pretty astounding levels of fraud while inside. I mean, this man's fucking name is the Facebook rapist. Right, yeah. Maybe we don't give him access to the internet, G4S. How about that? But we're going to come back to it. Because after 10 years inside, in spring 2022, Thabo Bester's stint at Manga Ung was reaching its dramatic end.

Despite being a mostly quiet and withdrawn inmate, fellow prisoners remember Bester being unusually cheery in the last few days of April 2022. He had been seen carrying loose rolls of cash and started telling everyone who'd listen that he wouldn't be around much longer. With 15 more years on his sentence before he could even apply for parole and release in his lifetime looking pretty bloody unlikely. Nobody knew what he was on about. Then, on the 2nd of May, with no warning, Bester was removed from his shared cell and placed in solitary confinement. Prisoners remember him putting on quite a show, kicking and screaming as guards dragged

him away to cell 35. At 3am, officials noticed strange smoke coming from down the corridor. Soon, the whole prison was awake. They had heard two huge explosions, and word quickly spread that Bester had killed himself by self-immolation. What does that word mean? Setting yourself on fire. Oh. Oh.

Boom. So it's not spontaneous combustion because you're doing it? Yeah, so self-immolation, yeah, like chuck petrol in yourself. Got it, got it, got it. Like that Buddhist monk. Yeah, precisely. So how could this have happened? Well, prisoners who smoked were allowed lighters in their cell, but...

It's their home. Yeah, but then danger. And a lighter was found in this cell, cell 35, not far from the body, which was under the bed, charred beyond recognition. At 4.25am, almost an hour and a half later, the police were called. Tabo Besta was declared dead at 5.10am. On the 3rd of May, 2022, so the next day, the Department of Correctional Facilities officially reported that the Facebook rapist

had set himself alight in his cell and died. To many, despite the grim details, it was a relief. The end of a serial rapist and murderer, who even while behind bars couldn't stop taking advantage of unsuspecting South Africans with all of his internet access and continued fraud. But, like we said at the top, that's not where this story ends. And we're only some minutes in, so don't worry, this case is just warming up but to tell you the rest we need to introduce you to a new character the beautiful ultra glamorous 35 year old doctor surgeon and entrepreneur dr nandifa magudumana as the owner of the Optimum Medical Aesthetic Solutions 360 Beauty Centre,

which is a fucking mouthful. That is a fucking fake name. Consultio, consultious bullshit if I've ever heard one. Fucking hell, I'm the junior vice president of Optimum Medical Aesthetic Solutions 360 Beauty Centre. Fuck off. Dr Nandifa was a very well-known skincare and aesthetics specialist. At the time, so last year, she specialised in facelifts, Botox, chemical peels, hairline restorations,

and generally all stripes of beauty enhancement procedure. She was known for her famous friends and clients, including the South African former Miss Universe, and her Instagram is full of famous faces and glitzy parties. Basically anything public to do with wellness, health or fashion in South Africa, Dr Nandifa wasn't far behind. Her Instagram bio still lists her accolades. She was listed in the Mail and Guardian's 200 Young South Africans, the SADC's Top 100 Young Leaders in 2018,

the Top 20 Most Influential Young South Africans in 2018 SADC's top 100 young leaders in 2018, the top 20 most influential young South Africans in 2018, it goes on. She was also married to a super clean-cut paediatric doctor who ran his own practice. And they had two beautiful kids together and a big beautiful house in Johannesburg. So by now you might quite rightly be asking, what could this high-flying nuclear family having successful celebrity doctor possibly have to do with the deceased TORAG rapist murderer Tabo Bester? Well, that's exactly the question that social media users were asking in June 2022. Because it was then that two months after Tabo Bester's dramatic self-immolation,

which is a word I now understand, in his solitary maximum security cell, he appeared to be spotted out grocery shopping with Dr Nandifa. When a fan of Dr Nandifa saw the celebrity doctor bagging up groceries in a Sandton City Woolworths, she decided that she just had to snap a picture. Woolworths is like Waitrose in South Africa. It's not like the pick and mix of yore.

It's a supermarket. It's like an upscale supermarket. Got it. While she's there, the fan takes a picture of her. And then this fan did what fans do and immediately posted that picture to Facebook. And it wasn't long before users looked at the man in the background and noted the striking resemblance.

Many people couldn't believe it. They wouldn't believe it. The Facebook rapist had died in a huge fire just a few short months before. It had been all over the news. But despite a new hairdo and some dark shades, there was no denying that this man had an uncanny resemblance to Tappo Bester. Even an old childhood friend of his weighed in, saying that they were sure it was him.

And it turned out that Dr Nandifa and Bester did in fact have a history. Back in Bester's Facebook raping days, when Dr Nandifa was Bester did in fact have a history. Back in Bester's Facebook raping days, when Dr Nandifa was a young aspiring model, they had met at a fashion event and struck up a relationship. Years later, prison records show that they had rekindled their flame whilst he was in prison for being a fucking rapist. And murderer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The full gambit.

Yeah. And Dr Landiva had started visiting him in maximum security prison around 2017. And yes, she was doing all of this while she was married to her presumably very nice husband and she had two kids. Before we're going to go any further we're gonna tackle the question that you are no doubt screaming down your headphones if Tabo Bester is chilling

bold as brass in a Johannesburg Willys. What happened in that prison cell? Well in October last year not-for-profit investigative news agency Ground Up got a reliable tip-off that despite what all the authorities were insisting, the body in that cell was not Tabo Bester. And when they got their hands on the autopsy, they couldn't help but agree. The body in the cell had been 4 foot and 9 inches tall, certified short king, whereas Bester was 5 foot 6.

And that wasn't all. The autopsy revealed signs of blunt force trauma. There was a fracture in the frontal region of the skull, plus signs of blood loss. And perhaps most tellingly of all, there were no signs of smoke inhalation. And that all means that this body had been dead before the fire had started because those lungs weren't doing any breathing. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So that's some of the

puzzle for you. But as for who that body belonged to and how it found itself in cell 35, you are going to have to wait, I'm afraid. So given these discoveries, the investigation intensified from an inquest into a full-blown murder inquiry. And on the 13th of April this year, so 2023, the following charges were added to Tabobesta's long line of criminal medals. Let's call them. They added perjury, violation of a dead body, aiding and abetting the escape of a convicted person, defeating the ends of justice, which is very dramatic, and fraud.

And the more the investigation continued, the better investigators began to understand the sheer scale of Bester's fraud. Because while he'd been inside, he had been a very, very busy boy indeed. As we said, he had phones and laptops, and crucially, he had access to the internet. And he used this setup to keep fleecing people from inside his cell. And there are a good few examples of what he did. to keep fleecing people from inside his cell. And there are a good few examples of what he did. But the most notable has to be his made-up media company,

21st Century Media. It was, of course, branded to look like a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. And this fake agency was no small-time con. It had employees. Real, experienced media figures tempted by the big name. Mostly, it seems, entirely oblivious to the fact that the company

they were working for and its projects didn't actually exist. And Tabo Bester is doing this from inside prison. And he's famousester is doing this from inside prison. And he's famous. Like, everybody knows who he is. We can barely manage a team and we work in the same building. He's managing an entire workforce from inside prison.

And people have since reported that Tabo Bester was very hands-on in running the company and would even transfer money whenever anyone needed it. Going by the alias Tom Motsepi, Bester would often hold meetings over Zoom, supposedly from his home in New York, to discuss business strategy. From his prison cell, Bester even organised a glitzy luxury event to launch the company in the Hilton Hotel in Sandton on the 13th of June 2018. Oh my god. How is this happening? And it was attended by real

celebrities like actress Amanda DuPont and singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, as well as a number of Johannesburg's high society figures. Attendees were told that the chairman tom modsepe was stuck in new york but that he would appear over video link oh my god from his prison cell i know apartments in new york are small oh my god oh my god and yeah like when we first said the stuff about how he bribed guards in order to be allowed to wear designer clothes in prison i was like why oh yeah now it makes sense because he's like just hanging out definitely not in prison and sure enough near the end of the ceremony tom appeared on screens in a suit and a designer watch against a white background no one in attendance knew that he was actually the convicted murderer and rapist

tabo bester calling from his prison cell in blomfontein. This I don't understand. I don't believe that because everyone knows his face. Yeah, like that person who's a fan of Dr. Nandifa who took a picture and put it up on Facebook. People knew who he was. How did none of these people recognise that this man was the Facebook rapist? And just to top it all off,

the 13th of June happens to be Tabo Bester's birthday, making him a Gemini, which is bad news. And the audience all sang happy birthday to him, which you can watch on YouTube if you so wish. Oh my God, I just can't cope. The only reason I can think that these people didn't remember his face is that maybe it hits headlines again after the self-immolation and maybe these people have forgotten what that face looked like. I don't know. I don't know. It's pretty bizarre though. In 2018, the company falsely advertised that Teraj P. Henson and Halle Berry would appear as guest speakers at their next event. Tom Mozzepi even had a dedicated Twitter profile full of Photoshop pictures

sticking his face on every image of a guy driving a car in the sun or chilling in a tasteful minimalist living room. I mean, you would have a very tastefully minimalist living room in New York if you were actually in prison. Yeah. In an upscale G4S prison. And as well as catfishing the entire media industry, they discovered that Thabo Bester

had also been afforded quite a lot of other privileges while in prison. And those privileges included leaving prison. He would be snuck off to go for pizza and even on romantic breaks with Dr. Nandifa. Alright right ladies if your boyfriend's not making

enough effort like taking you on date nights and whatever tell him this little story about how this man convicted of rape and fraud and murder still found time to be snuck out of prison in order to take his boo out for pizza dates for fuck's sake sake. There really is no excuse. And it wasn't just pizza nights, because one invoice shows a booking for the two of them at a luxury hotel. Just 30 minutes drive from the prison for four nights.

Quite what the fuck Dr Nandifa was thinking, sneaking away from her family to go on dates with a nationally infamous rapist and murderer, honestly we can't say. She's got to touch the high brist of hideous. Yeah she does, bad boys for life. But it only gets worse so prepare yourself for the rest of this episode. Now we also have no idea how Bester could afford all of this at all. In a maximum security prison, for this prisoner, for these crimes, the bribes that he would have had to pay to be able to do these things like leave prison and go to a luxury holiday resort,

the bribes would have been massive. If an officer had been caught facilitating any of these, from sneaking Bester out to sneaking Gucci jumpers in, they would surely at the very least have lost their jobs. But all of those infringements pale in comparison to Tabo Bester's most audacious plan yet, the prison break. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored and capture America's heart.

But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses,

hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. The plan, as you may have already figured out because you're very intelligent, was to fake Bester's death by suicide. Bester would get himself sent to solitary confinement cell 35,

which conveniently sits in a CCTV blind spot. A body would be procured by Dr Nandifa and smuggled into the cell prison by wardens, and then Bester would be smuggled out. So, in early April, Bester did his best to get sent to solitary. Meanwhile, Dr Nandifa turned up at the Free State Mortuary in Bloemfontein. And just a little warning for you, this part of the story creates more questions than it answers, and we are still absolutely none the wiser as to how she got away with this, but she did. Yeah, there's a lot of, like, almost slapstick comedic levels of bizarreness that are about to unfold. Dr. Nandifa did manage to leave

the mortuary with a body, claiming it was her father. So she had pulled off her side of the bargain. But unfortunately, Tabo Beste, even with all of his smooth-talking, Mickey Blue grifting faculties firing away, he couldn't get himself sent to solitary. So Dr. Nandifa was left holding the corpse, and she had to get rid of it, so she dumped it in a river. This is ridiculous. Like, firstly, I can't understand so many things to what's going on in Nandifa's mind, but how can Tabo Bester, a man who can get all of the things he wants in prison

and to be able to get out of prison, how is he not able to just get himself sent to the exact cell that he needs on the exact date that he needs? So obviously this is all happening because they can't use like a rotten body. They need it to be fresh when they get this all done. They need all of the pieces to align. So after she was forced to dump the first body which was of course her father nandifa went back to the morgue the same

one the same one and claimed a second body claiming this time that it was her brother it's like you know when you when you're like hungover and you don't want to go into work and you're like oh my granddad died i can't come in and they're like that's your sixth granddad this year yep that's what's going on here and once again the world's most trusting morgue said sure take your brother whatever we don't care but once again despite his best efforts tabo bester still couldn't get himself sent to cell 35. So, Nandifa has to get rid of the body again. And then she has to go back to the morgue again. And this time she said she was there to claim the body of her husband. And like some kind of twisted version of Goldilocks,

the third body, that of 32-year-old cat Lego Mofolo, was just right. Mofolo was a social, outgoing person with not a mark on him as far as a criminal record would go. He had left the house in May 2021 and simply disappeared.

The next time anyone laid eyes on him, he was burned beyond recognition in Tabo Bester's cell. Unfortunately for investigators, South Africa has a hell of a backlog of DNA tests. And it would be four months before anybody got an answer. And just three days after Bester had supposedly gone down in flames, Dr Nandifa went back to her favourite new hangout spot, the morgue, and tried to claim the body. She said that she was Bester's wife and talked about their

two imaginary children. Apparently she wanted to finish the job and asked to cremate him. They let her leave with the body and she hot-footed it straight to the crematorium. Just before he was due for cremation, in swooped Tabo Bester's mum to the rescue. She wasn't about to let some random woman take her son and burn him. She took it to court, and the body was returned to the mortuary.

Oh, Maria. Not least because the South African police had also by this point realised that Dr Nandifa had claimed another body back in April. How did they know? Because they found it. They found it in the river that she left it in with the identification tag still on. This woman is a doctor. I don't believe her.

I don't want her injecting anything in my face. No, no. She can't even fucking steal and hide a body without leaving the morgue identification tag on it. Oh my God, I cannot believe it. So, the body was returned, the DNA was tested months later, and the results came in. And since Catlegomopolo's family had opened up a missing persons case when he disappeared, police were able to identify the body straight away. So there it was, clear as day.

Incontrovertible proof that Tabo Bester had orchestrated an unbelievably daring escape plan. Police also noticed that CCTV had been tampered with, and that at 2.59am, seconds before the signs of smoke were reported, two people in warden uniforms could be seen hastily exiting the prison. So, the hunt for Tabo Bester was on. Now you would think, with photos of Bester spreading all over social media, with the body being DNA tested by police, that the gruesome

twosome might have fled to some far-flung place to escape the heat and toast to a job well done. But instead, the doctor and the douchebag were holed up in the well-to-do Hyde Park area of Johannesburg. There they rented a mansion with a collection of gaudy, show-off, rich guy cars in the driveway. And soon enough, perhaps inevitably, they got grifting. They registered a new company in Nandifa's name, Arum Properties. And Besta, under the pseudonym Tyke Nagwana, posed as its high-flying executive. Using pictures of luxury houses they found on Google, they posed as real estate developers and scammed millions of rand out of wannabe developers. What is happening? Anyone heard of a reverse

image search? Right, yeah. And in news that will surprise absolutely no one, the Arun Property's Instagram account started reaching out to models and influencers. The account would message with an invitation to take

part in a new Netflix show, Hot Property Chick. That sounds like a fucking AI-generated show. It sounds like something you would watch, though. That would sound like something I would watch. Kind of feels like Emily in Paris, but she's an estate agent. Hot Property Chick. I suppose she's an estate agent. Pop property chick. So with these messages flooding the DMs of wannabe models and influencers, one woman did agree to a Zoom call.

And she was invited to Cape Town to audition. But thankfully, her gut told her something wasn't right, and she cancelled last minute. But then. In March, this very year, in the year of our Lord 2023, with the heat still rising and nowhere to turn, Tababesta and Dr Nandifa went on the lam. On the 15th of March, the good doctor dropped her kids off at school

and never collected them. She left her practice, her family and her home behind. The next day, the duo left the country in a hired car with fake plates and crossed over into Zimbabwe. Which is very impressive because to hire a car to cross international borders is such a fucking ball ache that you have to do all of this extra stuff. Because I was going to go from South Africa to Mozambique and you have to buy like so much shit, so much shit. It's such and so few car agencies will do it. Nothing stops these two. No, evidently not.

Nothing stops the love that dare not speak its name because its name is Nandifa, you're gross. Or something like that. And they thought that they were getting away with it. like that. And they thought that they were getting away with it, but police, private investigators and the government agents were hot on their tail. The two of them crossed into Zambia and then into Tanzania. But on the 7th of April, months after they'd left and a full year after the cell fire, this pair of them were finally caught, just 10 kilometres from the Kenyan border. They both had stolen passports. Ambassadors had him down as a United States

resident called Tom Kelly. He had used a string of different monikers over the years. Thomas Young, Kelly Young, Thomas Mangula, Taba Mangula, Kelly Johnston, Rufus Mahapo, and Tom Rufus Reddy. At several points, he'd also claimed to be related to South Africa's richest man, mining magnate Patrice Motseep. Isn't Elon Musk technically the richest South African? I know they don't want him, but technically. I mean, that makes sense. But maybe harder for him to pretend he's related to Elon Musk.

Yeah, right. But now, plain old Tabo Bester, the Facebook rapist, was extradited back to South Africa to face his reckoning. It was only at this point, by the way, that G4S, the company that ran Mango in prison, finally copped that the body that had been in cell 35 wasn't Tabo Bester. And the Department of Correctional Services had

only just officially confirmed to the public that Tabo Bester, the Facebook rapist, was still very much alive. Now we can only assume that they kept Shtum because you can't stage a dramatic prison escape in a ball of flame without a lot of help from prison guards and the police. But now he was in the dock, heads would roll. At the time, the South African government paid over a billion rand a month to G4S to run two private prisons. But police and activists alike saw the obvious signs of a cover-up, which undoubtedly exposed the extent of corruption in South African prisons. At the end of the day, Besta was no Houdini.

It would have been fully impossible to escape without huge amounts of help from the people who worked in that prison. The first two faces to pop up in court were the soon-to-be ex-G4S prison warden, and Dr Nandifa's father, who's got the most incredible name, Zoleil Cornelius Selenki-Lini-ish, something like that. Nailed it. Both of them were charged with murder, arson and aiding and abetting escape. So not only is this woman obsessed with this man, her fucking dad is helping.

What's going on in this family? I have no idea. And it also turned out that Nandifa had got her dad involved with all of the body shopping down at the morgue. She already killed you once, mate. But actually, he'd already been cleared. In a later trial, Dr. Nandifa's dad decided to accept. A 10,000 ran bail and his murder charge was withdrawn. That seems like a very low amount. It does, doesn't it? And then at the next trial, in the dock, were the prison warden, Tebhoho Lipolo, a CCT operative at the prison, and Dr.

Nandifa herself. She came into court obscuring her face with her hoodie up and a green face mask, which she was told to remove by the magistrate. And then she was charged with murder, fraud and violating bodies. Now, we've found ourselves at this point several times before, detailing the crimes of some absolute piece of shit and then asking about the culpability of their female accomplice. And this debate is going on in South Africa as we speak. Is Dr Nandifa just a lovesick, obedient assistant

who can't see her paramour for what he really is? No, she's not. No. Absolutely no way. No. She doesn't get a pass from us. Nope. From the very start,

Nandifa was complicit and active in the fraud. And her morgue-bothering behaviour throughout 2022 shows a cold, calculated criminal mind. Also, at this point, Tabo Bester is in prison. So insofar as this, he's still exerting a huge amount of control of her, I don't believe it. So now, let's finally get to Tabo Bester himself. When he arrived in court, he remained as ostentatious as ever, arriving in a designer yellow tracksuit. He appealed to the judge and claimed to have been poisoned while back in prison. he remained as ostentatious as ever, arriving in a designer yellow tracksuit. He appealed to the judge and claimed to have been poisoned

while back in prison. But the details of his brazenness spoke for themselves. The fake media empire, even when he was supposed to be dead, the designer clothes that were delivered for him to wear inside, he literally turned up

to a recent court appearance in a gaudy as hell Louis Vuitton jumper. Why is this being allowed? I don't know. And also there are countless videos of him dancing in his jail cell, very clearly thumbing his nose at the justice system. Oh, and the fact that he set

fire to his cell and faked his own death. It was kind of irrefutable. And in the end, Tabobesta received charges of fraud, defeating the ends of justice, which is my new favourite charge ever, escaping from lawful custody, and violating a body. To date, nine co-conspirators have also been named and shamed. As well as the five we've mentioned already,

the remaining four are all G4S employees charged with facilitating his escape. The government contract with G4S has since been cancelled. And at the time of writing, the state has revealed that three more suspects could join those already in the dock. Because, yes, the trial is still going on. And the revelations just keep coming. Just weeks ago, Bester's original lawyer was found to be facing his own rape and assault charges. Oh my God. And early last month, the lead investigator died, apparently by suicide, in Bloemfontein.

Bester has apparently turned to God, seeking redemption for his sins. It's funny how often that happens, isn't it? Taba Bester is imprisoned at Kosoge Mampuru Correctional Centre in Toshwani, awaiting his sentence. Everyone seems to agree that he probably won't see the light of day again. But he might. He is Tabo Besta. He's done it before. So who the fuck knows?

If you are listening to this and you are slightly even thinking about becoming the next dr nandifa don't stop right now this will lead you nowhere good you'll end up going to morgue stealing bodies dumping them in rivers getting them caught because you're an idiot and then you two will go to prison yeah don't be a nandifa about it don't be a nandifa never never nandifa hashtag never nandifa and that's it tab be a Nandifa. Never, never Nandifa. Hashtag never Nandifa. And that's it. Thabo Besher is a fucking prick. And yeah, he's an awful, awful human being. And that is the case that is

keeping South Africa glued to the headlines at the moment. And that's that. Yeah, I've decided I'm going to go for Christmas anyway. Oh, there you go. And what else do we have to tell you guys? Well, this week we released a new shorthand as we do every single tuesday over on amazon music and if you want to go check that out this week's one is on free britney yeah yeah we don't leave her alone

so go check that out and we'll be back next week with some more things. Bye. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster.

Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part,

This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.