Two more arrested for Thabo Bester escape
The police in Bloemfontein have arrested two more G4S employees in connection to Thabo Bester's escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre.
The suspects were arrested at their place of residence on Monday and will appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
The convicted rapist and murderer escaped from the maximum-security prison in May last year by faking his own death and was rearrested in Tanzania earlier this month.
He was allegedly assisted by employees at the prison and his medical doctor lover.
So far, eight suspects have been arrested in relation to the escape and six of the suspects are current and former G4S employees.
The private security company runs the Mangaung Prison facility in Bloemfontein in a 25-year public-private partnership with the government.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says the latest suspects will be facing charges of assisting an inmate to escape from lawful custody and defeating the ends of justice.
Meanwhile, Police Minister Bheki Cele says the two suspects were working at the correctional centre's control room.
Cele was speaking on the sidelines of a crime imbizo in Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape on Monday.
"They are ordinary people that were working on the control room and all the checking. What is very clear, all the people that have been arrested for now, will have to tell us who sent them because they couldn't have done this thing on their own.
"But we are very hopeful and we are satisfied that the team is doing the good work, we don't want to push the team but we want them to find their way up to the level where we all believe this thing originated from.
"We know it originated with Bester, but Bester couldn't have been dealing with a small fish."
