CELE: THABO BESTER, DR NANDIPHA NABBED WITH MULTIPLE PASSPORTS, IDENTITIES

Police Minister Bheki Cele shed more light on the couple's dramatic arrest when he addressed the media along with Justice Minister Ronald Lamola on Saturday afternoon.

FILE: Police Minister Bheki Cele said Tanzanian police, working with South African authorities and Interpol, had followed the pair when they left a hotel in Dar es Salaam, intercepting them 10km from the Kenyan border. Picture: @SAPoliceService/Twitter

Chantall Presence | 08 April 2023 19:16

CAPE TOWN - Fugitive Thabo Bester and his socialite girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, were nabbed in Tanzania with several passports with multiple identities in their possession.

Police Minister Bheki Cele shed more light on the couple's dramatic arrest when he addressed the media along with his the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, on Saturday.

Cele said Tanzanian police, working with South African authorities and Interpol, had followed the pair when they left a hotel in Dar es Salaam in a black SUV.

Pair headed for Kenya

The minister said they were pulled over in Arusha and arrested along with a Mozambican national whose role in the pair's escape from justice has yet to be established.

"They have not [just] one passport per person. They have several, and all of them are not stamped, but in particular their entrance to Tanzania is not stamped. So, we cannot know which border [from South Africa they escaped through]... Those details are not in the passport," Cele said.

"We are told they were 10km from Kenya, [planning] to move from Tanzania to Kenya. So, it does look like they were headed to the next country."

Lamola confirmed the government had set the wheels in motion for Bester and Magudumana to be deported to South Africa.

His Tanzanian counterpart had promised co-operation with South African authorities.

"We are confident that indeed the good mutual working relations we have with Tanzania will enable us to ensure that all the fugitives South Africa is looking for... can be brought back to South Africa as speedily as possible," Lamola said.

A high-level delegation from South Africa would depart for Tanzania on Sunday to ensure the pair were brought back to South Africa.

Lamola said the team, through the SA High Commission to Tanzania, would engage authorities in the east African country.

He clarified that Bester's conviction should expedite the deportation, rather than requiring an extradition order.

"Extradition is what we are dealing with in the case of the Gupta brothers and Bushiri matters. Those have been charged in our courts. They must undergo trial in South Africa," Lamola said.

"The difference with the Bester matter [is] he has already been charged and convicted and escaped from prison...it becomes a clear case of deportation...so he can complete his sentence. There is no court process in Tanzania."

The full list of charges Bester's accomplices will face is not yet known.

"Firstly, you will understand that she [Magudumana] helped Mr Bester to escape. So, that is the charge that she will face," he said.

Lamola said police would announce any further charges.

Head of Public Diplomacy at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Clayson Monyela, said the government didn't anticipate any issues with the deportations.

He said that as a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tanzania had ratified the SADC extradition protocols.