RedHanded - FROM THE VAULT - Thabo Bester: Twisted Firestarter

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Due to a huge number of requests following a new Netflix doc on Thabo Bester, we're re-releasing our 2023 episode on the shocking, shameless, madder-than-fiction South African saga.--At 2am, on the 3rd of May 2022 – 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.--Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600, to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm Suruti, I'm Honour, and welcome to Redhander. Where today, we are on. We're on the trail of a case. The trail? Yes.

We're 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 or a garmy 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 2 a.m. on the 3rd of May last year, so 2022. Inmates at Manga Un 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 Besta, 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 Besta. This case has been gripping the people of South Africa for the last few years, and the public have been shocked by every new, more grobbing, prison-scamming, bribe-taking detail. Even now, new and ever-crazier revelations, in the ongoing trial are hitting their 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. 16-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 miss, 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, truly. Nine months later, on the 13th of June, 1986, Taber Bester was born at Kisani Barangoonath 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 Tavo 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 Buster 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. Tubbo 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 Besta 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-20s,

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

need us 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, Besta 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. Tabo started to charter private planes and luxury hotel rooms all through smooth-talking and mocked-up invoices.

That seemed 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 charted 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.

Tabo 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 night.

Nightclub. Is it Tsar? 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 short 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 Ti-Hulu. Namfondo 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, Tabo 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 Besta, 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 belonging.

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. You're listening to an episode of Shorthand, our weekly show for Wondry Plus subscribers. Listen exclusively and ad-free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app.

All right, very quick break, because I know you are gagging to get back to this particular episode. But we have to tell you a little bit about what's going on on Patreon this week. Certainly. Well, this week we have Under the Duvei where I explain how hypnosis works badly, but it works. It does work. And I will tell you how I came off the pill and now the back knees back. We also have a little chat about Russell Brand and contemplate the composition of the

soul and whether it even fucking matters. And then I do a little review on a throwback dating TV show that I watched on Channel 4 called Perfect Match, where I literally couldn't believe, A, that people were smoking in clubs because it's that old, and then all the horrific things that were coming out of people's mouths. And you can listen to all of that over on Patreon, and you can watch it too, under the duvet is every week. We release it every Wednesday morning. And also on Patreon, you can get red-handed, totally ad.

and we also do monthly bonus episodes and you can find all of that at patreon.com forward slash red-handed. So, before he could be convicted, Tabobesta, out on Bond, committed his most vile crime to date. Though his relationship with the 26-year-old Nonfondo 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, I get so much worse later in the episode. You just want to kill him. But despite Nonfondo's unwavering support, Tabobesta was never going to win any Boyfriend of the Year awards. In September 2011, Besta

and Nonfundo went on holiday to Sunset Beach, which is just north of Cape Town. And soon enough, an argument over his ex-girlfriends erupted. After an hour's long screaming match, Nonfundo eventually fell asleep. And when she did, Bester went to the kitchen to get a knife and started to rob her. You just can't help himself. No, it seems that way, doesn't it? At around 2 a.m., 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. Numfondo didn't respond. At 7am, Bester left the hotel with his girlfriend's laptop and phone and told the owner of the guest house not to wake her up until 2pm. Nfondo 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 Numfondo 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. 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 lot of. Yeah. Fuck off. He's so... He is just the worst.

He's the worst. And, you know, he really continues to lay at these. And I'm not saying that the things he says that happened to him and the fact that his childhood was rough or not true. But so are a lot of people's. Mm-hmm. 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 stopped sure. Instead, he starts saying that he could have gotten away with both the rapes and the murders if he 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 do not intentionally want to kill her. But I can plead guilty on the fact of bringing a knife into her present. 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 be guilty that I did bring the knife into the room and I had a

fact that she got stabbed. To show that, I don't feel that I, 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 deaf year. 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 you. by using certain methods so that my fingerprints were not there and et cetera. So it only became known to me that I did her rape on her death. 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 realize 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've 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 minimum, he was a man. 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 because he was born out of. 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 Besta was sent to Mangaung Prison, a privately managed maximum security facility in Blomfentain,

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, 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 antipsychotic 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 into 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 now to commit pretty astounding levels of fraud while inside. I mean, this man's fucking name is. The Facebook rapist. 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, Tabobesta'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 share. show, kicking and screaming as guards dragged him away to cell 35. At 3 a.m., 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. 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, got it.

Like that, but a smunk. 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 4.25 a.m. almost an hour and a half later, the police were called. Tababesta was declared dead at 5.10 a.m. On the 3rd of May, 2022, so the next day, the Department of Correctional Facilities officially reported that the Facebook rapist had set himself a lie 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 Optum Medical Assetic Solutions 360 Beauty Centre, which is a fucking

mouthful. That is a fucking fake name. Consultio, consultiest bullshit if I've ever heard one. Fucking out. I'm the Junior Vice President, Optimum Medical Aesthetic Solutions 360 Beauty Center. Fuck off. Dr. Nandifa was a very well. 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, it goes on. She was also married to a super clean-cut pediatric 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 towrag rapist murderer Tabobester? Well, that's exactly the question that social media users were asking in June 2022. Because it was then that two months after Tabobesta'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 Assampton City, Woolworths, she decided that she just had to snap a picture. Woolworth is like Waitrose in South Africa. It's not like the pick and mix of your... I see. I see. It's a supermarket.

It's like an upscale supermarket. Got it. Well, 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. 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 Tabo Besta.

Even an old childhood friend of his wade 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 a young aspiring model, they had met at a fashion event and struck up a relationship. Years later, prison record show that they had re-killed. They kindled their flame, whilst he was in prison for being a fucking rapist.

And murderer. Yeah, 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 going to tackle. the question that you are no doubt screaming down your headphones if Tabobesta is chilling

bold as brass in a Johannesburg willies. 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 Tabobesta. and when they got their hands on the autopsy, they couldn't help but agree. The body in the cell had been four foot and nine inches tall, certified short king, whereas Bester was five foot six.

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. 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 Tabo Bester'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 on the investigation continued, the better investigating. 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, 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 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 Motsipi, Bester would often hold meetings over Zoom supposedly from his home in New York to discuss business strategy.

From his prison cell, Bester even organized a glitzy luxury event to launch the company in the Hilton Hotel in Stanton 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 as well as a number of Johannesburg's high society figures. Attendees were told that the chairman, Tom Mottsepe, was stuck in New York,

but that he would appear over video link. Oh my God. From his prison, Sal. 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, Neil, 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 Tabobesta calling from his prison cell in Blomfontein. This, I don't understand. I don't believe that because he's all, he's, 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 recognize 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 Terrage P. Henson and Hallie Berry would appear as guest speakers at their next event. Tom Watsopi 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 are actually in prison in an upscale G4S prison. And as well as catfishing the entire media industry, they discovered that Tabobesta

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. All right ladies, if your boyfriend, not making enough effort, like taking you on date nights and whatever, tell them 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. There really is no excuse. And it wasn't just pizza nights, because one invoice shows are booking for the two of them at a luxury hotel, just 30 minutes dry 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 bristophilius. Yes, 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.

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 Tabobesta's most audacious plan yet. The Prison Break You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps, the ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened.

and cases so baffling, they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast. Morbid.

We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack,

around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group. With a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists out of years. There's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.

That mother f***er is not real. And if you're a woman, weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast. Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. The plan, as you may have already figured out because you're very intelligent, was to fake Best is 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 Blumfontein.

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, Tabobesta, even with all of 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 Tabobesta, 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're like hung over

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 grandad 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 potty 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 Muffalo, was just right. Mofalo 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, out there 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-sweeped Tabobesta'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, this point realized 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 it. I don't want her injecting anything in my face. No, no. She can't even fucking steal and hide a body without leaving them more 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 Katlegomopolo's family had opened up a missing person's case when he disappeared, police were able to identify the body straight away. So there it was. Clear as day. Incontrovertible proof that Tabobesta had orchestrated an unbelievably daring escape plan. Police also noticed that CCTV had been tampered with, and that at 259 a.m., seconds before the signs of smoke were reported, two people in warden uniforms could be seen hastily exiting the prison. So, the hunt for Tabobesta was on.

Now you would think, with photos of Besta spreading all over social media, with the body being DNA tested by police, that the gruesome-to-sum 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, a room properties. And Bester, under the pseudonym, Tric Naguana, 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 Aroom 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 A-Ban.

I generated show. It sounds like something you would watch, though. That does sound like something I would watch. Kind of feels like Emily in Paris, but she's an estate agent. Hot 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 lamb. 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 ballache that you have to do all of this like 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 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, 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, and Besters had him down as a United States resident called Tom Kelly. He had used his string of different monicas over the years. Thomas Young, Kelly Young, Thomas Mangula, Tabamangula, 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 magnet, Patrice Mottseep. 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 Tabobesta, the Facebook rapist, was extradated back to South Africa to face his reckoning. It was only at this point, by the way, that G4S, the company that ran Manga in prison, finally copped that the body that had been in Cell 35 wasn't Tabobesta. and the Department of Correctional Services had only just officially confirmed to the public that Tabobesta, the Facebook rapist,

was still very much alive. Now we can only assume that they kept Schem 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, Bester 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, with a soon-to-be ex-G4S prison warden, And Dr. Nandifa's father, who's got the most incredible name.

Zoliel Cornelius Selenki-lini-ish, something like that. Nailed up. 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? Mm-hmm. 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 town at the morgue.

She already killed you once, mate. Yeah. But, actually, he'd already been cleared. In a later trial, Dr. Nandifa's dad decided to accept a 10,000 round bail, and his murder charge was withdrawn. That seems like a very low amount. It does, doesn't that? And then at the next trial, in the dock, where the prison warded,

Tebho-ho 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 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 maud-bothering behaviour throughout 2022 shows a cold, calculated criminal mind. Also, at this point, Tabobesta 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 track suit. He appealed to the judge and claimed to have been poisoned while back in prison. But the details

of his brazeness 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? 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, Bestor'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 Blumphamptain. Bester has apparently turned to God, seeking redemption for his sins.

It's funny how often that happens, isn't it? Tabobesta is imprisoned at Kosogi Manpuru correctional centre in Treswani, awaiting his sentence. Everyone seems to agree that he probably won't see the light of day again. But he might. He is Tabo Bester. 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. Never Nandifa. Hashtag never Nandifa.

And that's it. Taubo Bester 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 Brittany. 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. To listen to Shorthand every week, start your seven-day free trial with Wondry Plus. And listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or in the Wondry app. Today is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17-year-old cradles her newborn. son in her arms. They all saw much I loved him.

They didn't have to take him from me. Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families shipped their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity homes and forced them to secretly place their babies for adoption. In hidden corners across America, it's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. Godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the modern evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University.

Where powerful men emboldened by their faith determine who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away. Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.