Thabo Bester had been on the run for a year before being apprehended in Tanzania early this month. Image: GETTY IMAGES
A infamous South African rapist used the man’s body to escape from prison, and now the man’s father is demanding an explanation for his son’s passing.
The father of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, whose body was used by a convicted rapist in South Africa to escape from prison, Batho Mpholo, is demanding an explanation for how his son passed away.
Thabo Bester faked his own death and used Mpholo’s body to trick the authorities in order to escape from prison last year.
The body was previously thought to belong to Bester, but it has since been determined to be Mpholo’s.
“The truth and nothing but the truth” is what Mpholo’s father said he needs.
Given that police had told him his son had collapsed and died in a hospital before being brought to a morgue, he has also questioned how Bester got his son’s body. Mpholo intends to sue the government.
When the body found in the cell was re-examined in March this year after suspicions were raised by local media, it was found that the person had died as a result of blunt-force trauma to the head.
Mr. Mpholo claims that he does not believe the police’s account of what happened when his son was killed.
The family of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, who vanished in April 2022 at the age of 30, investigated Bloemfontein morgues but were unable to locate him.
Only recently was his mother requested to participate in a DNA test, which helped identify his remains.
According to Mr. Mpholo, his son was a fun-loving soccer lover who was survived by a daughter who is now four and a son who is now two.
He is devastated and heartbroken, and because the family hasn’t seen the body yet, they can’t organize a funeral. Katlego Bereng Mpholo’s mother, Monica Matsie, sobbed in an interview.
Katlego Bereng Mpholo was a Bloemfontein Celtics fan. Image source: FACEBOOK/ KATLEGO BERENG MPHOLO
The “Facebook rapist,” Thabo Bester, managed to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Center in Bloemfontein while disguised as a warder.
In addition to being convicted of raping and robbing two other women, he was already serving a life term for the rape and murder of his lover.
Before being apprehended in Tanzania earlier this month and deported back to South Africa with his girlfriend, Nandipha Magudumana, he managed to elude officials for a year.
On suspicion of aiding his escape, Ms. Magudumana, her father, and two workers from the British security company G4S, which oversaw the facility, have all been taken into custody.
They haven’t responded to the accusations yet.