Thabo Bester’s mother is living in fear as the manhunt for the convicted rapist who faked his own death in a daring prison break continues.
Maria Mabaso says she has been receiving death threats since the news broke of her son’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre last year.
“I don’t feel safe. I get phone calls every day. I don’t know who to trust,” she told eNCA on Wednesday.
Authorities said they had believed Bester died after setting himself alight in the privately run prison in Bloemfontein on 3 May 2022, but last weekend the police said DNA tests had revealed the charred remains found in the serial rapist’s cell belonged to someone else.
It was Mabaso’s DNA that confirmed the body found in the cell was not his son’s.
She said she had not seen Bester in years and was now living in fear of him and his allies.
“I don’t feel safe because I get phone calls from different people every day. I don’t know who to trust,” Mabaso told the broadcaster.
“At the end of the day, these people have my address. When I see cars stopping at the gate, I get scared that it’s someone who is coming to kill me,” she added.
On Tuesday, the police raided Bester’s last-known hideout in Hyde Park, an affluent suburb in Johannesburg where the criminal is believed to have lived with celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana.
He remains on the run. – Staff Reporter