Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester remains behind bars in the C-Max section of Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre and has not been moved back to the Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC) from which he escaped, the correctional services department said.

On Saturday, it issued a brief statement in response to social media claims that Bester had been moved back to the MCC facility where he faked his own death and escaped in May 2022.

Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said: “The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has noted false information circulating in various platforms that offender Thabo Bester has been returned to Manguang Correctional Centre. We can state that Bester was transported to Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional facility.

“In addition, DCS can confirm that there is no complaint filed about threats to his life and that offender Bester is taking meals.”

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When Bester appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday, his lawyer Marvin Carpede said his client had not eaten for 48 hours over ‘safety concerns’.

Carpede said Bester was scared he was going to be poisoned and wanted food provided by his legal team, not the jail.

Ultimately, the magistrate, Mohlolo Kgabisi, said Bester had eaten safely for the last eight years, without being poisoned, and that the court could not grant him special privileges.

On Saturday, the justice and correctional services department also moved to clarify that despite some reports, Minister Ronald Lamola had not told Parliament this week that the G4S contract would not be cancelled.

Lamola had revealed that the total value of G4S’s 26-year contract to manage the MCC – which ends in 2026 – is R 2 052 841 427.

He said at the time that the department paid G4S R45 million per month. He said the department was facing significant affordability constraints, but they had a contract and must honour it, News24 reported.

Department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said:

“Further to this in relation to various contractual breaches at Mangaung Correctional Centre, the departmental presentation to parliament was clear that a legal opinion on whether these breaches can lead to termination of the contract is being sought. The entire proceedings are replete with instances where Minister Lamola reiterates this point which regrettably and opportunistically, has been ignored.”

Bester will appear in court again on 16 May.

News24