Probe into officials on duty during Thabo Bester escape 'needs to be reopened'
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) says a Department of Correctional Services probe needs to be reopened into the officials who were on duty when Thabo Bester escaped from prison.
The murderer, also dubbed the Facebook rapist, broke out of jail at Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year.
His escape though was only confirmed by the department this past weekend.
Bester was declared dead after a person's burnt remains were found in his cell after a fire.
However, doubts were raised about his supposed death, when man with facial features resembling those of Bester was seen at a shopping mall in Gauteng this month.
Correctional Services says DNA analysis confirmed the body found in his cell was not his.
Popcru's Richard Mamabolo says an internal investigation into the fire was closed after a security supervisor was dismissed on charges of negligence and three officials from the Emergency Security Team suspended.
"The people were not checked for the escape they were checked for negligence. It then brings us to the question of how the body of the person who was found in the cell in the first place and how Bester then left. That means there was some form of an organised syndicate to get him out and arrange a body to resemble him."
Mamabolo says officials working at the maximum-security facility need to be questioned again.
"For maximum prison, it’s a huge task to convene we think the department tried to sweep the matter under the carpet and we think there should be an investigation into the senior people running that prison."
