G4S informed of Bester post-mortem in November ‘22: Edwin Cameron
Retired justice Edwin Cameron has told Parliament that private security company G4S was informed of the results of the post-mortem done on the supposed body of Thabo Bester in November 2022.
Cameron, who heads the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, addressed MP’s on the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee on Thursday morning.
The committee is investigating the daring escape by Bester from the Mangaung maximum security prison.
Bester, dubbed the Facebook rapist, escaped from prison in May 2022 by faking his own death.
“They knew long before hand but were closing their eyes to it,” Cameron said.
“We formally informed G4S about the body, post-mortem report and the DNA in early November 2022. What happened the night and morning of the 2nd and 3rd of May last year wasn’t a rare phenomenon; it was the culmination of a process of deprivation. There is disfunction at Mangaung.”
Cameron said Bester thrice requested to be moved to a single cell.
“Our lead investigators found out that Thabo Bester sought to be moved from his cell to Broadway 3 times and not twice as previously stated. He first requested on the 15th of August in 2019, the 15 of April 2022 and the 30th of April in 2022.”
G4S, which runs the Mangaung Correctional Centre from where Thabo Bester escaped, revealed on Wednesday that CCTV cameras were not working on the night of the convicted killer’s escape.
“The CCTV system was fully operational, except for the cameras covering the unit where inmate Bester was held and the administrative building,” G4S director Jacobus Groenewoud told lawmakers.
“The video cameras of these two buildings function on the same power circuit and it came to our attention that power to that circuit had failed during the period 19:38 and 04:11 at 02 and 03 May 2022.”
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