Author: The Free Stater

Fugitive prisoner Thabo Bester and celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana are now back in the country, with their specially chartered flight landing at Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg in the early hours of Thursday. The two lovers, who went on the run in March after news of his escape from a Bloemfontein jail emerged, were caught in Tanzania last Friday together with a Mozambican national believed to have assisted them to cross borders and evade law-enforcement authorities. A government delegation then travelled to Tanzania to secure their return to South Africa. Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and Police Minister Bheki Cele are expected…

The father of celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana and a suspended prison warder have been charged with murder, arson and aiding and abetting notorious rapist and murderer Thabo Bester’s escape from jail. The two men made a brief appearance in the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Tuesday but they were not asked to plead. They will remain in police custody after the case was postponed to 17 April for a possible bail application. Bester was arrested in Tanzania on Friday having fled from the Mangaung Correctional Centre last May by faking his own death in a fire and planting a corpse in…

Nandipha Magudumana’s father and a former prison warden are expected to appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Tuesday in connection with rapist and murderer Thabo Bester’s escape from prison. Police confirmed the development on Monday. Magudumana’s father, Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, was arrested at his Port Edward home in the Eastern Cape province on Friday, while Senohe Matsoara, a former correctional services employee, was nabbed at his residence in Bloemfontein on Saturday. They are accused of helping Bester to fake his own death in a daring prison break from the Mangaung Correctional Centre where he was serving a life sentence…

A Free State government ambulance ferrying a nine-month-old patient together with her mother from Ladybrand to Bloemfontein overturned after hitting a pothole along the N8 road on Monday afternoon. The baby did not suffer any injury, according to the provincial health department. The mother, however, is said to have complained of hand and neck pain after the accident. According to Free State health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi, one of the emergency medical services vehicle’s crew members suffered “moderate” injuries whilst the other one sustained “minor” injuries. The ambulance was transferring the young patient from Senorita Ntlabathi Hospital in Ladybrand to Pelonomi…

The drama surrounding the daring escape from a Bloemfontein prison by convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester has taken another macabre twist with revelations that his girlfriend, well-known celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, allegedly stole three bodies from Free State mortuaries. The two lovers, who went on the run a fortnight ago after news of his escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre emerged, were apprehended in Tanzania over the weekend together with a Mozambican national believed to have assisted them to cross borders and evade law-enforcement authorities. At the time of their arrest, they were found with several fake passports which…

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…

A private plane flying was forced to make an emergency landing in the Free State town of Welkom on after the pilot discovered a deadly cobra that had slithered into the cockpit. The light aircraft, a Beechcraft Baron 58, was carrying four passengers from Cape Town to Nelspruit when the pilot, Rudolph Erasmus, spotted the snake while flying at 11 000 feet on Monday. He landed the plane safely in Welkom, about 140 kilometres northeast of provincial capital Bloemfontein. According to Erasmus, he first felt a cold sensation on his back but did not immediately process what was happening. “To…

Sexual violence in the form of sexual assault is a serious problem on South African university campuses, and it can be argued that it is sanctioned and embedded within institutional cultures. Sexual assault on university campuses is a serious issue that affects many students and can have a devastating impact on the survivors, their families and the wider community. Unfortunately, this is also a widespread problem, with many universities and colleges around the world reporting incidents of sexual assault and harassment. For example, statistics from recent studies and reports show alarming rates of sexual violence. In a 2019 survey conducted…

Striking state healthcare workers have been ordered to end a week-long protest that has adversely affected clinical services across South Africa’s major hospitals. Patients were left stranded at Pelonomi Tertiary Hospital in Bloemfontein and other hospitals in the Free State after members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) went on strike last week demanding a 10 percent salary increase, instead of the 4.7 percent offer that the government had put on the table. However, operations are expected to start returning to normal after the Labour Appeal Court on Monday ordered the striking healthcare workers to end…

Premier Mxolisi Dukwana has accused the opposition of undermining the government’s attempts to address the interlinked challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment in the Free State. In his reply to the debate on the State of the Province Address (SOPA) that he presented a fortnight ago, the newly elected premier said it was important to understand the history of these challenges. “It was clear from your inputs that you are concerned about the poor state of our infrastructure, especially water leakages and irregular supply of water, very poor state of our roads, potholes on our streets, sewer spillages especially in…