Thabo Bester, also known as the ‘Facebook rapist' is seen on a television camera in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday, 3 May 2012. Bester appeared for a plea and sentencing agreement in connection with a model's murder. Picture: Nardus Engelbrecht/SAPA
What is this nonsense regarding the true picture of what is happening with the issue of Thabo Bester?
On the one hand, the private company G4S that runs the Mangaung Maximum Prison where he is said to have died when he started a fire in his cell, maintains this is true.
Sharply contradicting this is the assertion by Correctional Services that the person who was burnt beyond recognition in that cell is not Bester. According to this view, DNA tests have proven this.
But how can GS4 and Correctional Services contradict themselves over such a mundane matter when they should be co-operating and finding a simple resolution to this matter? On what basis is GS4 adamant that Bester died in that fire and yet CS gives a different story?
The simple issue is this: these two institutions should be looking at the same set of facts, that is having done intensive scientific investigation on that body found in the cell.
They can in no way arrive at two different conclusions about the same issue.
Is G4S covering for its complicity in this thug having been assisted to fake his own death and be spirited out of prison?
As for Correctional Services, they are caught in a bind because society has been asking all along why they need to spend billions annually to run these so-called “secure” correctional centres when such things still happen?
Both institutions should unequivocally come out and say what is the basis of their assertions so the public can judge for itself who is lying through their teeth.
* Dr Thabisi Hoeane, Pretoria.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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