All language subtitles for Beauty.and.the.Bester.S01E02.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to].en

That photo revealed that a rapist
and a murderer was out in the public.

Correctional services confirmed

that Bester did not die in a fire
in his cell in May last year.

Bester escaped
by faking his own death.

He was allegedly
in the company of the celebrity doctor,

Nandipha Magudumana,
Bester's supposed customary wife.

When the picture leaked,

I knew she was in big trouble.

That's when people started asking,

"Penny, your doctor. Have you seen
the stories? Is this a dream?"

I think she also owes a duty to the nation

to go to the police and to tell us
what her role has been.

She calls me,
but in a panicked state.

She told me clearly this is a plot
and a plan to destroy her.

And then she said,

"For your safety and for the safety
of the therapists, kindly please,

close the practice."

Little did we know that was the last day

one would ever set foot
at Optimum Medical Aesthetics.

Then Nandipha calls my dad.

Insisting that I must run
out of that suburb.

"Your life is in danger.

You might be murdered there."

"What's happening?"

"No, don't ask questions. Just leave."

"Something bad is gonna happen."

How did a TK become a Thabo Bester?

And how did a Thabo Bester
meet up with a Nandipha?

What actually happened?

Thanks for staying with us. Let's now
reflect on one of our top stories.

The Thabo Bester saga.

He's been walking about,

living amongst us all these months.

Ah, good afternoon, Captain.

Wow, Captain,
South Africa is a movie on its own.

You usually hear about
a waiting trialist escaping from custody,

but not a convicted prisoner.

When the whistle was blown
about Bester's escape,

every news editor and their dog wanted
details of what actually happened.

There was a serial rapist out and about.
You know, on the loose.

And at that period it was close to a year
since he had escaped.

Nandipha's role in the escape
was pretty vague to a lot of people.

And it was evident that he wouldn't have
been able to pull this off all by himself.

So, our brief was to
first track down Nandipha

and establish whether
she was hiding Thabo.

So we went to her practice.

But we got there and it was closed.

When we rocked up today
the practice is completely closed.

Glass doors shut, the lights are off.

Which fuelled speculation
and raised more questions

about her alleged involvement
in Thabo's escape.

The celebrated
Dr Nandipha Magudumana

was right at the centre of it.

I got quite a number
of calls and messages…

clients who wanted to know

what is it that they're reading about.

Before we knew it,
there was a statement on Instagram

that the practice would be open soon.

And I honestly did not know
as to what was happening.

We also learned about
where they lived.

Massive mansion in Hyde Park.

You know, it's in the leafy suburbs
of Johannesburg North.

I was blown away.

High walls, a lot of security around.
Offers a lot of privacy.

It's the perfect place
for someone to hide.

Sometimes your fortunes can change

from being in a prison cell
to living in a mansion just like that.

If I had escaped from prison,

I wouldn't mind being there
because you get a lot of sunlight,

you get a lot of room to exercise,
and you can move around freely.

But we found that
they hired security guards

to come and clean out the house
in the middle of the night.

Thabo and Nandipha escaped.

I hoped that she was talking to lawyers,
consulting with people.

But when she did not pick up
her kids from school,

I knew that she had gone.

She was on the run with Thabo Bester.

For her to even dump her kids
and run off with this man?

Like… No, man.

Mm-mmm. Something is off.

I don't know what it is, but, like, uh-uh.

The mood around the country…

they couldn't believe
that this is actually happening.

Because of, uh…
it is a serious security breach.

So it was very important for, you know,

the law enforcement,
together with us forensic practitioners

to put our, you know, heads together,
resources…

So, I then managed to get Dr Nandipha…

Her latest numbers,
including the numbers of Thabo Bester.

So that if any contact had to be made,
especially to the kids,

then we are able to see that
they are indeed here in South Africa.

But nobody really knew where they were.

I did try phone her. Her phones were down.

Mmm. I did try to call her.

And the minute
she put her social networks down,

and no one could find her,

I knew dark days was coming for my family.

So we anticipated
that the next thing would be

for the couple to… to flee.

Interpol was alerted.

Dr Nandipha's passport was red-flagged.

Yeah, then after that,

it was breaking news after breaking news,
after breaking news.

A manhunt is underway…

…of the murderer and rapist…

The entire nation is captivated by this…

He escaped prison…

The police have already
started to unleash themselves.

Police calling
for any information

about Thabo Bester's whereabouts
to come forward.

It seems so unbelievable.

I think a number of departments
were caught with their pants down.

Parliament wants answers.
They want accountability.

And at what stage do you warn
the victims, the rape victims,

that this person is out?

They basically embarrassed
a whole government.

What happened?
We need to know that.

How did Thabo Bester

finally manage to escape
from maximum security prison?

That was the big question.

How did Thabo Bester manage
to break out of prison?

A prison escape of this magnitude is not
something that can be done on the fly.

Escapes are usually done
in a hastily manner,

like opportunistic in nature.

Prison guards letting their guard down.

But this was extraordinary.

To find out what went wrong,

a parliamentary briefing had been held
about what exactly unfolded

the night where Bester escaped.

If you think of the specifics of it,

he would need a body to serve
as a decoy for this elaborate plan.

So it seems as if the only option
was for him to get a body from outside.

After hitting a stumbling block
with Hyde Park Property and her office,

our next focus was to track down the body
that Nandipha and Thabo Bester used

as a decoy for his escape from prison.

And that led me to Bloemfontein.

While in… in Bloemfontein,

I managed to get a contact working
at a government mortuary,

and he broke down to me what transpired.

A few weeks before Bester's escape,

there was a distressed young woman
who walked in,

saying that she was looking
for her father's body.

Um, she believed
that her father had passed on.

Well, they presented to her a photo book
and she identified his body…

so that she could bury him.

'Cause under usual circumstances,

if someone claims a body,
the body gets buried.

That's it.

It's in this dam
that the body's found floating

on the 29th of April 2022.

We're at the Kopano Nokeng River

just outside of Bloemfontein,

where a man who was picking up firewood
found a sleeping bag.

In the sleeping bag he found
that there was a dead body.

He called the police.

The police came and investigated
and ruled it as a drowning.

Forensic pathologists
were called onto the scene.

They took the body to
the Free State Government Mortuary.

At the Free State Government Mortuary,

workers attempted to conduct
an autopsy on this body.

But then found there was a tag
attached to this body

which belonged to the mortuary itself.

They cross-referenced this tag

with, uh, details that they had
in their record books.

And then found that this body was claimed
by Dr Nandipha a week prior,

claiming that this was her father
who had gone missing.

However, we know that
Dr Nandipha's father is alive and well.

Clearly, something went wrong
with this plan to use this body as a decoy

and that body was thrown
into the river in Bloemfontein.

It appeared as though the timing

of Thabo Bester's escape
was completely off.

A couple of days later, allegedly,

Nandipha made her way to the morgue
at the national hospital yet again…

…where she claimed another body.

But this time, she said that
it was the body of her friend's brother.

It was ridiculous because
what is she doing with all these bodies?

Apparently, what Dr Magudumana did is,
she had two funerals for these bodies.

Both bodies were buried
in Botshabelo Cemetery.

It was discovered much later
when police exhumed the graves.

In one coffin, they found mielie meal.

And then in another coffin,
they found, uh, wors and meat.

This was to cover up their trail.

One of my sources at the time,
he had pictures of these coffins.

And he was like,

"You know what? Strange things
are happening in Bloemfontein."

It appears as though that
she was looking for the perfect corpse

to use as a decoy in Bester's escape.

It shows you the extent at which, uh,
Dr Magudumana and Thabo Bester

had planned Bester's escape.

How did-did this young woman, uh,
get into taking a corpse?

Burying the corpse?

I can't imagine.

I can't imagine for my… my daughter
to do such things.

Hearing this
and seeing all these reports,

I-I couldn't make sense of it.

These are two different people to me.

Love…
it can make you do unbelievable things,

like what the doctor did.

To some shocked, some young people
actually admire Dr Nandipha,

saying, "That is true love."

People want to excuse it and say,

"Yeah, you know,
if I was in love I'd also do this."

What kind of love is this?

If "love was blind" was a person,
it would be Dr Nandipha.

Because I don't understand
how she was convinced

by someone like Thabo Bester.

Like, how smooth was he?

Remember,
Thabo was a smooth talker.

He will pull you in.

You will come a member of his world.

My name is Morui. Surname is Mphou.

I used to work for G4S prison.

When Thabo came in, it was national news.

There were warnings about him

from the government sector
to the private sector,

that, "Take note,
once he speaks to you, you are hooked."

So we were cautioned not to interact.

We were afraid of the language

that he can use to pull you in his world.

So that's how he was
highly connected with security.

And he was able to move everywhere.

That in itself says
this guy's starting to have powers.

Mess with Thabo Bester,
then you will be in trouble.

You'll be in trouble.

When we saw Thabo's death on social media,

immediately I started laughing.

I said to my ex-colleague, when we met,

"How is it possible
that a person can burn in ashes,

with a cell with so minimum stuff?

What have you guys done?"

That is when we began to conversate,
me and my ex-colleagues.

Then I came to some understanding
of what happened.

Now, when you look at this map,

this is the map of Mangaung
Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein.

This is how it looks.

These are the housing units.

This is the broadway
where the actual escape took place.

The idea that someone would've been
able to bring in a dead body

into a super max prison…

that can only have occurred

with significant assistance
from a whole array of officials.

A couple of days after Nandipha
had claimed a body from the morgue,

a prison official drove a bakkie
to the Mangaung Correctional Centre.

At the back of this bakkie
was a large TV cabinet.

Inside that TV cabinet was a body.

A few days before the escape,

the bakkie arrived
and it came through here.

The bakkie drove in sally port.

The sally port is a big door
that allows vehicles to go in.

The bakkie had not been
thoroughly checked

and was able to bypass
any form of security.

And the bakkie then left
the corpse in this workshop in this area.

Cell 35 was located
where the CCTV cameras…

It was almost in a blind spot
and quite close to the emergency exits.

A prison official allegedly then moved
the body to a wheelie bin,

and he then took that wheelie bin

to what was known as
the "dark room" of the prison.

The dark room is next to cell 35.

Then after leaving the body,
it was on standby for the actual escape.

The same time Bester had applied
to be moved to the segregation unit.

And in his application he claimed
that the 26 Numbers Gang was after him,

and that he feared for his life.

The strategy was he had to be in cell 35
in order for him to move out easily.

Cell 35, at the time,
is now the waiting area

for his planned escape.

At the time of the planned escape,

an official went to the cell,

gave Thabo Bester the G4S uniform to wear.

Because if you want to escape,
you need to be in uniform.

And Thabo must leave
the inmate uniform inside the cell.

Now Thabo has to leave. It's time.

Bester went out through an emergency door.

Then they ran together down the stairs,

where the cameras are now on blind spots,
through the admin building.

That is when they were caught
by this camera over here.

Immediately once there is
the confirmation that he went out,

then that is when an official
can start burning

whatever that is left in that cell.

He took the wrapped corpse,
put it in cell 35.

The body was put under a mattress

after propellant was placed
onto the face and hands.

And that cell was then set alight.

A number of people
heard the sound, even employees.

Like, boom!

It went again, again. Boom!

That is when the fire caught,
and the cell was now on fire.

It is one of the most
improbable things that I've encountered,

not just as a judge, but in my life.

You would not expect something
so stupefyingly improbable to occur.

It was mind-boggling.

What a plot,
that's all I'll say.

I can understand
why everyone's gripped by this.

-You think the guy's a genius?
-Nah, not a genius.

Let's not give him some cult hero status
'cause he's not that. He's far from that.

-He raped and killed someone's daughter.
-Oh, yeah, yeah.

One would think that
after escaping from prison,

you'd want to keep a pretty low profile,

but the two of them were clearly
living the high life.

She was living the life of glitz and glam.

She was always travelling,

always attending
these high society events,

and hanging out with celebrities
and very prominent people.

It was definitely just a life of luxury
that she was living.

So following Bester's escape,
she'd been on TV in various interviews.

I want to go straight there,
the way that I believe is the right way

with good intentions.

While Thabo Bester had been out for months
and living his life with Dr Nandipha.

Bester and Nandipha
were living together.

And according to the property manager,

the lease was signed
in both of their names,

and it was Nandipha and TK Nkwana.

TK Nkwana was one of Bester's
many identities,

and seemed to be
the most prevalent and recent name

that… that Bester had been using
when he was scamming people.

I think at a stage, it was believed
that he had close to 20 different aliases.

He would Photoshop his face
on the bodies of celebrities,

one of them being Michael B. Jordan,

to convince people to not only trust him,
but to invest in his companies.

It speaks again
to the arrogance of this man.

Like, "I'm right under your noses
and nobody knows it's me."

As far as everyone was concerned,

Thabo Bester died, um, from suicide
in a prison cell.

But she knew the true identity
of this person that she was harbouring.

She allegedly plotted his escape with him,
and now she was giving him refuge.

She definitely pulled the wool over us
and the closest members in her circle.

There could be a lot of dead people

because of… They fell for…
for Thabo Bester and Nandipha.

Hi, everybody. This is Dr Nandipha,
and welcome to the new year.

We are expecting amazing and great things
from iMedia this year.

In 2023, iMedia reached out to me
on Instagram with a opportunity.

Basically, they were looking
for presenters,

and I was told I need to go
to Cape Town for auditions.

So, I was now talking to a guy called Neo.

Him requesting to meet me, it was just to,
you know, try to close and seal the deal

and convince me to actually go
to Cape Town.

So we met at the restaurant.

Yeah, man. Something felt offish.

My crew is from Joburg.

Um, the idea was to find people

that will be producing luxury content
on social media.

-Yeah, yeah.
-And--

To think, there I was sitting
with a murderer, on the same table.

Neo told me that I'd make, like,
57 million per year. Like, wow.

I was like, "No."

And then he mentioned Nandipha,

and I knew Dr Nandipha
as someone that you can trust.

So she called me and assured me that
I need to go to Cape Town. This is legit.

She even went as far as following me
on Instagram with her verified account.

I just couldn't ignore the red flags.

The following day,
I just didn't go to Cape Town.

I didn't take that flight.

You know, I could have lost my life.

I could've been killed.
I could've been kidnapped.

Of course I'm angry at her.

I mean, I'm a mother.
I had lost my husband.

For her to deceive me, to lure me,
to convince me to go to Cape Town…

Who knows what could have happened?

Who must look after my child?

And I knew, when she called me,
that she's part of it.

Yeah, I-I still don't understand
who is Nandipha.

It is ten minutes after four o'clock.

Taking your voice note about,
specifically, Dr Nandipha Magudumana.

I mean, we are here
trying to fight gender-based violence

and yet you're still finding women

that still be protecting
people like Thabo Bester.

This entire thing
of Dr Nandipha, it's…

I'm just in complete and utter shock.

You've literally just
thrown away your entire career,

and I still don't understand why.

It's just bizarre.

Here's a young woman who…

You must be, like, the pride of
your family, your village, your friends.

You've got two young children.
You're beautiful.

I'm like, "What happened?"

Dr Nandipha's involvement in this,

I'd say that piqued the interest
of the public,

especially seeing that her name
was the one that was trending.

Now, the brazen prison escape.

Not a complete story
without the involvement of his lover,

Dr Nandipha Magudumana.

Much like her life,
her fall from grace was public.

South Africa hasn't really seen
a Bonnie and Clyde type of duo.

It's just a dichotomy
of these two characters.

One is a really successful
and well-respected individual in society,

and the other is basically a convict.

Them combining to plot and commit
an escape from prison

was something
no one would have thought of.

We all have skeletons in our closet.

In Nandipha's case,
hers was in a prison cell.

I can't sit here and say…

…"Well, how did she engage
with someone who was behind bars?"

I didn't say, "No, that's not possible."

I was just like, "It's possible.
I just wanna know how it happened."

It's not unusual for a person
of a reasonable social profile

to get involved with a prisoner.

And Thabo Bester, he lured women.
And we don't know what he did to lure her.

Perhaps she lured him.

Uh, one shouldn't underestimate
her agency in all of this.

She was a very competent person
of great ability and agency herself.

We're not clear on exactly how they met.

But in her court application
that Nandipha had filed after the escape,

in order to release the body to her,

she did say that they met
at Wits University.

In 2006,
while she was studying medicine

and Bester was supposedly studying law,

and somewhere along the line,
he moved to Cape Town and they lost touch.

Currently, there is no proof
that Thabo had actually attended Wits.

But she then found out through
media reports that he had been arrested.

From 2017, she decided to go
and rekindle their relationship in prison.

So we went to Mangaung Prison
and asked for the visitor's log.

And the visitor's log was
a remarkable piece of evidence

because it showed Dr Nandipha
Magudumana visiting him regularly

and visiting him up to about six weeks
before the escape.

During 2020, where he supposedly
proposed to her while he was at prison,

and that qualified her
as his customary law wife.

But not really surprising that
Dr Nandipha Magudumana would form

some sort of attachment with him,

because part of his lure was that he
appeared to be a good-looking person

with social proficiency, with articulacy.

I believe she got involved
with Thabo Bester

because his ability to manipulate people
and his ability to spin a yarn on people.

And he probably said
the right things to her,

probably things
that she had never heard before,

and, you know, she was intrigued.

But, yeah. I would definitely…
would love to know why.

What is it? Like, how did he manage
to convince you?

Hey. I hope you're good.

We always wanna make sure we are safe.
Especially for your family.

You're a great person.

Since you requested
for me to do a recording,

I'll try my best
to cover as much as I can.

Around 2009, he wanted something done
that has to do with business,

that has to do with money.

We were the guys.

And then we met our beloved politicians.

Relationships turned sour.

Everybody sort of glocked up.

Meaning everybody sort of got their guns.

Obviously expected them to come
maybe kill me or something like that.

But they…

They created a situation

where I woke up and I was in the papers,
"The Facebook Rapist."

At first I looked at it and I laughed
and I was like… …"Come on."

Me? Facebook Rapist? Are you high?

I have never even been on Facebook.

But they created stories.
They fabricated stories.

Next thing,
it was the biggest story in South Africa.

Yeah. And that became my new image.

"The Facebook Rapist" who rapes and kills
for cell phones and laptops. Oh, my God.

Wow. I have not heard that before.

He plays the victim very, very well.

It was always a thing of, you know,
"Other people coming after me."

Everybody else is always
trying to set him up.

He's a blatant pathological liar.

That's what Thabo Bester is.

"I don't have any family,
and nobody comes to visit me,

and you're my only friend."

And I can imagine
that those are the things

that he would have whispered in her ear.

I'm pretty sure
that he played on her soft side.

It was in the media
that I killed somebody in Cape Town.

That's just the craziest thing.

I know I didn't kill her.

And they said to me, "Look…

we can do this the easy way
or the simple way.

All we want is for you to plead guilty."

I didn't understand what was happening.
I was… I was scared. I was confused.

In less than three days,
I was doing 60 years.

From being free… Then everyone was gone.

I didn't have anyone.

People wanted me to die, so bad.

They made me feel like I'm some disease

that needs to be destroyed.

This man is a complete psychopath.

And I mean, that's how they operate.

Police say a manhunt is currently
underway in an effort to capture

the rapist and murderer, Thabo Bester.

The police had no idea

where Dr Nandi and Thabo Bester were
at that point.

They couldn't reveal too much information

without alerting Nandipha and Thabo
that they were possibly on their trail.

But it left a sour taste
in a lot of people's mouths.

Why the delay in catching him?

The concern is that
if he's been out of bars for about a year,

what about the people
who live in fear of him?

What the hell is happening
in South Africa?

We are living, literally, amongst people
who have committed serious crimes.

I feel like we are not safe anymore.

It is appalling
on so many fronts.

I also want to take this opportunity
to apologise to the victims

and to all the people of South Africa that
this dangerous criminal was let loose.

Why wasn't an alert put out?

Why wasn't the public notified
almost immediately?

But more so, why weren't the victims
and their families notified?

At the time, every media publication
was out on this story,

about Thabo Bester and the escape.

This was our story.

And I think, at that point,
we'd been getting so many tip-offs

and so many phone calls
from whistle-blowers,

just wanting to give us information.

And we realised
that we had received an email

from someone telling us that, around 2018,

Thabo had been running this company
called 21st Century Media.

And at the time, Thabo Bester,
for all intents and purposes, was in jail.

And we are here.

In June of 2018, 21st Century Media was
going to have a in-house launch,

where they had invited very well-known
people and some dignitaries.

Very glamorous, very glitzy,
and these guests were told

that they were going to be receiving
a keynote address

from the chairman himself, Tom Motsepe,
to invest in 21st Century Media.

Pioneers who are strong narrators,

telling riveting stories
and brand experiences.

Tom Motsepe was this supposed businessman

who had investments in multiple
companies across the country,

whether it was in the media space
or the business space,

and he was supposedly a Harvard graduate.

Uh, I think they said, at the time,
that he was abroad,

and that's why
he couldn't attend in person.

And they were told
to divert their attention

to the big screens in front of them.

…because the time is now.

And, lo and behold…

…here is this inmate dressed
in a fancy suit

and wearing a expensive-looking watch.

Thabo Bester dialling in
from prison,

calling himself Tom Motsepe.

♪ Happy birthday, dear Tom ♪

♪ Happy birthday… ♪

A room filled with politicians,
celebrities,

singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

That was sort of
the cherry on the cake.

Because the response
that we got from the public

was that it seemed
as if he was actually laughing at them,

as opposed to being emotional by
the crowd singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

You know,
the tragedy of this is that

this man is highly, highly,
highly intelligent.

But he is very, very dangerous.

Using the Internet, which has always been
his major source of fraud,

whilst in prison.

How was it possible that Thabo Bester,
who was a prisoner,

was able to run and manage a seemingly
big company from within the prison?

And he was managing
around 20 to 30 different employees.

All of their meetings
with him was strictly online.

Because he was this businessman
who was based in New York.

And it shows
that he must have had connections

both outside and inside of prison
to pull something like this off.

It is our belief
that Dr Nandipha Magudumana

brought in the laptop
for Thabo Bester to use.

According to the court
application that Nandipha had filed,

Nandipha had paid just above
7,000 rand for Bester's studies,

and if you are a student
while being an inmate,

you do have access to a laptop
as well as the Internet.

It just places Nandipha as someone
who was involved in this.

And she knew what was happening,
because that was around the time

where the scam businesses
like 21st Century Media were taking place.

Happy birthday, Chairman.

Surely Nandipha would have known
that this is Thabo Bester

and at what point in time did she say,

"You know what? I know who and what
this guy is and I'm okay with it."

And did that even happen?

So it seems that the relationship

between Bester and Magudumana

goes back to at least
while he was in prison.

And that they've already
been in business there.

When I rethink it over,
it is 2018 when Thabo Bester

was coming in to her life.

Nandipha came to me and said,

"Hey, Bro. Wouldn't you like to work

for this global media platform
and earn big bucks?"

I'm like, "Oh, why not?"

And then she says, "Okay. There's this,
um, 'media tycoon' type of individual

who resides in New York City.

His name is TK Nkwana.

And he's gonna call you."

So TK calls me.

He name drops big names and sounds like
he knows what he's talking about.

It's very convincing.

It was a done deal.
"Nathi, you're getting this job."

He was introduced
to be this prominent businessman

who is, you know, has multiple businesses,
is doing well for himself.

So this is a voice note he… he sent me,

trying to ask me to assist him
with a couple of things.

So, all you have to do
is find somebody

that's interested in making a lot of money
in a short space of time,

um, with government guarantees,

and basically bring them to the table

and we can find some leverage
of working together.

So, the professionalism
Nandipha spoke about

and, um, the intellectual property
that she alluded about him

was something that one had also known.

We've got different sections
of projects that we're doing

which is tenders,
private investment projects.

We're bringing artists
like Future, Drake, Beyoncé,

so we've got a lot of things
that we can plug somebody.

There is a time, I'd say, I liked him.

'Cause he spoke with respect,
uh, sort of showing love to the family.

Nandipha would say that,

"Do you know that TK grew up
without parents or a family?"

He would call my mother "Mom".

And my dad, "Dad".

And my mother, being the soft person
that she is, would say,

"Yeah, guys. Shame, poor TK, do you know
that he really regards me as his mother?"

She sort of wanted a tight-knit type
of empire in the family.

That's how my father also got involved,
yeah, in their businesses.

I don't like to talk too much
about that period.

It was a very, very strainful

and oppressing period in our lives.

I find myself not knowing
whether to blame myself.

Why did I go to Johannesburg? I really…

Because there are so many
criminals of high profile

around… This Sandton, especially.

I was afraid.

Nandipha had several
companies registered in her name.

These companies varied
from investments to, um, property,

as well as media production.

There was Vibes Africa, iMedia,

and then Arum Holdings.

Arum Properties claimed to be
this property company

that specialised in developing
luxury properties,

and Nandipha ended up making TK
the chairman of Arum,

knowing very well
that TK was Thabo Bester.

He was seen as, like, a partner
that would be consistently consulted

or phoned into important meetings.

So he was basically running and managing
businesses from within the prison.

But victims said that
after they had paid deposits,

the most that they had gotten
was a foundation.

There was just no progress
in these projects,

and that's how these victims uncovered
that they were essentially being scammed.

All right, so onto our exclusive story,
now SABC News can reveal…

Dr Nandipha Magudumana

allegedly swindled a high-profile doctor
of millions of rands…

She told me that she owns
this media company.

They then promised that they can bring
the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

And then I would go to her.
We'll pray about it.

I would lit… call her
and we'll pray about it.

I understand
that you paid millions of rand.

I can confirm that, yes, it's millions.

Do you feel betrayed?

Betrayed… betrayed is an understatement.

Why?

Like, why? How could they do that?
How can they lie to me?

Was she really bamboozled by Bester,

or did she run everything
and decide to just ride the wave?

Ninety percent of the time,
he was, um, on the phone with Nandipha.

Even when she was driving,
she'd put the phone, block it off.

He's not even saying anything,
but he's just watching.

You know.

I felt like there was a bit of control,

not wanting her to be around her family.

She… It was sort of "divide and conquer",
you know what I mean?

He was dividing her from her family
to keep her for himself.

It was either, Nandipha's very brave,
or she was very naive and stupid.

Why is she playing along with this guy?

And I know that she's aware
of who he is and where he is.

Why is she listening to this guy?

God, help me.

You know, I don't know

if I'm gonna do
this whole sentence in here.

Or if they're gonna one day kill me.

I think, sometimes,
you think to yourself you're dreaming.

'Cause it's so crazy.

And then…

…God said, "Get up."

"Get up and just try fight, bra."

I got up.

And I started fighting.

You find people that serve God.

You're a godly-given child, Nanz.

Thank you for being kind.

Thank you for loving those
that are rejected sometimes, by the world.

I have no words. I have… I have no words.

I can definitely tell

how people would have been scammed
by someone like this.

Because if I was Nandipha,
I would not know

how to respond to something like that.

There he is, pretending to be a victim

and knowing full well
that he was serving a life sentence

for rape and for murder.

This is a dangerous man.

Um…

honestly speaking about, like, the rape…

I think there was…

I think some part of me
always wanted to feel

how it feels like to have a knife
and to have somebody under your control.

It was never about stabbing anyone.

It was just scaring you and getting you
to a corner where you can't do anything,

and felt useless and…

…say to you, "Shut up," and you know for
a fact that there's nothing you can do.

It was very risky for even other victims

for someone like Thabo Bester
to be on the escape.

I know there were a number of tracking
and tracing teams that were put together

specifically and solely
for Thabo's recapture.

Certain addresses were still monitored.

Dealerships were visited to find out
if they haven't hired any other vehicle.

Dr Nandipha's cars, all of them,
trackers were activated

to see who's driving the cars.

Police were on the lookout
for the two musketeers.

I don't think Nandipha foresaw
being caught,

and I don't think she understood
the gravity of the situation

and what would happen to her
after being caught by the police.

But for Thabo,
this was definitely nothing new for him.

I was very concerned.

So I was glued to… to
my phone and to the news.

A cash reward of 100,000 rand
has now been offered

to anyone who might have
crucial information.

Investigations are
at a critical stage.

Our focus for now,
as the SAPS,

is in apprehending
this fugitive of justice,

as well as apprehend the accomplices.

I was just, uh, praying for the law
to apprehend Bester,

which would automatically
bring my sister in as well,

but she would be safe.

I was very, very worried about Bester
doing something bad to Nandipha,

judging from his history of using a woman

and killing her afterwards.

Felt like, unfortunately,
she will become a casualty.

Th-That was actually
one of my greatest concerns,

because he's done it before.

I was worried
because of this Thabo person,

that she might kill her.

It was not even alleged.

It was said he was convicted
rapist and murderer.

And the voice notes
of Thabo Bester threatening my sister

proved he was a nutcase,
and he's a psychopath.

If I call you again,

and you don't pick up this phone,

and you fucking try and throw
some stupid little fucking…

…"Where's the money, what, what, what"…

I will fucking
squeeze you so hard, my sister,

you will regret the day you met me
in your life.

So try me, I will break your face.

If I call you,
and you don't pick up your phone,

you must know
what's going to happen, sis'wam.

You know what's going to happen…

…because I have
people watching you!

You fucking stupid woman!

You think I would leave you
to walk the fucking street by yourself?

And I'm telling you now, if you ever block
anything that has to do with me,

I will fucking tear you apart personally,
with my own bare fucking hands,

even if it means I go back to jail.

Do you understand?

Do you hear me? Do you hear me?

I heard you.