Parliament Shuts Down Thabo Bester’s Bid To Testify As MPs Clash: “We Can’t Promote Lawlessness”

A routine administrative session of Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi took a dramatic turn on Monday when members argued over a late submission from convicted murderer Thabo Bester.

The committee met virtually to deal with procedural matters linked to its ongoing probe. Early discussions focused on issues including a case opened against forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan and evidence relating to the suspended Inspector-General of Intelligence.

However, tensions escalated during the latter part of the meeting when members addressed a last-minute letter submitted on behalf of Bester, who asked to appear before the committee.

Thabo Bester Requests to Address Parliamentary Committee

Bester, widely known as the “Facebook rapist”, is awaiting trial on additional charges after he and his partner Nandipha Magudumana were arrested in Tanzania in 2023.

The arrests followed Bester’s dramatic escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, where he had been serving life sentences for rape and murder.

The Gauteng High Court recently dismissed Bester’s urgent application to be transferred back to a prison in Gauteng. Judge John Holland-Muter ruled that the Department of Correctional Services was within its rights to relocate him from C-Max Prison for security reasons.

During Monday’s committee meeting, Parliament’s legal adviser Andile Tetyana explained that the submission received from Bester lacked sufficient detail.

“The letter is scant. It is not clearly spelt out in terms of what contribution he would be making, in terms of the committee’s terms of reference. Safe to say, he wants to appear,” Tetyana said.

The letter submitted on Bester’s behalf read: “Please note that we received telephonic instructions from our client that he wants to appear before the Ad Hoc Committee to give testimony that he asserts will be useful in advancing the mission and vision of the commission, and especially as it relates to testimony that has been adduced to date regarding him.”

MPs Reject Late Submission from Convicted ‘Facebook Rapist’

Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane opened the matter for discussion among members, but the panel ultimately agreed that Bester’s request came too late in the process.

Members said the committee had reached the stage where it needed to begin focusing on recommendations and proposed interventions rather than accepting new testimony.

They also noted that Bester had other platforms available should he wish to raise issues, including engaging with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services.

Lekganyane voiced strong opposition to Bester’s request, arguing that Parliament should not entertain submissions that could undermine the country’s justice system.

“Honourable (Dereleen) James has said it, the way we decided it, is that we are at a point where the South African public now wants to see us suggesting what interventions we think are necessary.

“The issue of crime is escalating in the country, and Parliament has to make a statement about its intention to keep crime in the country, and make sure that South Africans feel safe in their country,” Lekganyane said.

“Further than that, I don’t think that Mr Bester is justified. Mr Bester is a convicted criminal who escaped from prison in this country and even skipped the country, according to the reports that we have had.”

Lekganyane added that if Bester was challenging the circumstances surrounding his arrest or extradition, those matters should remain within the courts.

“And if the courts have concluded on those matters, we cannot be an appeal body, in terms of South African law. He knows where such decisions would have to be appealed, and as Parliament, we must also be seen taking into account the lawful running of the country.

“We can’t promote lawlessness, where a person escapes from custody, and then he comes and tells us, ‘that the manner in which I was arrested was an abduction’.

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“This thing is a problem, because it is like certain sections of South Africa when they get arrested, it’s abduction… An arrest is an arrest and can never be equated to an abduction, especially when you re-arrest a convicted prisoner who has escaped from prison,” Lekganyane said.

“We must come out, guns blazing, on matters like those ones, and South Africans need to understand that we want the citizens of this country to be law-abiding, and for Parliament to be reduced into a mockery, reduced into a playground, or a hall for gymnastics of any person who thinks they can approach Parliament and raise frivolous matters with us…

“Of course, when we write back to him, we will not use such statements as they may be understood to be statements of condemnation, but this is just to underscore our frustration with criminality in this country, and how criminal elements may think that they are justified, even when that country is hurting,” Lekganyane said.

“But a convicted criminal who escapes from our prisons, and then wants to be justified before us? We can’t accept that.”