Kriti Mehrotra
As a three-part true-crime documentary series directed by Anthony Molyneaux, Netflix’s ‘Beauty and the Bester’ can only be described as equal parts bewildering, haunting, and intriguing. It comprises not just archival audio-video footage but also exclusive interviews with those close to the matter to really shine a light upon the case of Thabo Bester (aka Thomas Bester). The South African native is a convicted rapist and killer, yet he is now also facing charges related to allegedly faking his own death and escaping prison with the help of his reported lover.
Thabo Bester’s Criminal History Dates Back to His Teenage Years
It was on June 13, 1986, when Thabo Bester was born at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa, to a single mother by the name of Meisie Mabaso (often referred to as Maria). However, as per records, he was never registered because Meisie is not a registered individual herself, considering her own mother was a farm worker and did not have the means to do so. She reportedly still tried her best to give her son the best possible life, though, even if it meant working long hours and him primarily being raised by his grandmother from a really early age.
According to reports, Thabo did also have a few siblings as his support system growing up, but he fell down the wrong path as a teenager, and it ultimately led to his first conviction at age 17. It’s unclear precisely what he did or how long he was sentenced for, but we do know his second conviction followed less than 2 years later, as he was arrested for fraud before being handed 2 years. He was eventually paroled, yet he continued down this road until he had become infamous for his alleged criminal acts as well as con artistry, with most of them principally targeting women.
Thabo Bester Allegedly Kept at His Cons Even After Being Sentenced to Life
Thabo was admittedly only a young boy when he “fell in love with the entertainment industry,” driving him to want to pursue a career that would enable him to live large like the celebrities. Unfortunately, as time passed, he “couldn’t separate reality from the actual facts,” which resulted in him reportedly creating his own false narratives and starting a brutal criminal enterprise. This involved him using Facebook to lure models to his location with fake job opportunities, just to then take advantage of them in the worst of ways – hence, his moniker of “Facebook Rapist.”
In September 2011, while staying at a guest house in Cape Town for two days, Thabo stabbed his model girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu, to death following an argument. He was arrested not long after, but it wasn’t until 2012 that he was sentenced to a total of life in prison plus 25 years on charges related to the sexual assault and murder of his late girlfriend. This particular verdict came a year after he had also been found guilty of raping two other women after luring them through social media and then robbing them of their personal devices.
Thabo was serving his time at the privately-managed, maximum-security Mangaung Prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, when he allegedly found a way to keep up with his criminal activities. He reportedly got access to the internet as well as a laptop by claiming he was taking online classes, which he used to launch an alleged fraudulent media and events company called 21st Century Media in 2018. It has been alleged that on May 3, 2022, he faked his death to break out of prison allegedly with the help of a different body, a few guards, and his girlfriend, Dr. Nandipha Magudumana.
Thabo Bester Has Been Rearrested and is Currently Incarcerated
While Thabo was initially declared dead owing to the completely charred remains found in his prison cell on the fateful day, the autopsy report later published raised some serious suspicions. The belief was that the convicted criminal had died by suicide from setting himself on fire, yet the official cause of death was ascertained to be blunt force trauma to the head. Yet, it wasn’t until the height of the remains was proven to be much shorter than the convict and his DNA came out as a negative match that officials figured out he had actually escaped – this was in 2023.
According to the aforementioned original, Thabo resided with his girlfriend in a massive mansion in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, under his alias of TK Nkwana or Neo until his escape became public. Then, he and Nandipha Magudumana abandoned the home, her private medical business, as well as their alleged scam property company called Arum Properties, to go on the lam. The couple was eventually arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, on April 8, 2023, shortly following which they were both extradited back to South Africa to face the consequences of their actions.
By late summer of the same year, Thabo was back to serving his life term in prison, and a total of twelve people were charged in connection with his jailbreak, yet the court proceedings are still ongoing. He is personally currently awaiting trial on the additional charges of violating a corpse, fraud, escape, and defeating the ends of justice while incarcerated at the Kgosi Mampuru Prison. However, it’s imperative to note that during a pre-trial hearing, he declared to the court he would rather have the death penalty than any of his co-defendants be convicted, asserting they didn’t know anything, but he was shut down.
