Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester not only orchestrated one of South Africa's most audacious prison escapes but also managed to convince some of Johannesburg's most connected and wealthy media personalities that he was a high-flying billionaire.
While his rape victims struggled to recover from his abuse, the career fraudster who dreamed of a life of affluence, used the social access provided by his married influencer girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, to allegedly conduct the multiple scams he used to fund his escape.
In this 45-minute documentary, Deadly Deception: Tangled in the twisted timeline of 'Facebook Rapist' Thabo Bester, News24 tells the story of how Bester went from a life of poverty, abuse and crime to the reinvention of himself as a New York tycoon - all while he was behind bars and serving a life sentence.
We reveal how his victims described the horrific impact he had on their lives and interrogate how Bester orchestrated his escape with a faked suicide. We also examine the life of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, the young man whose body Bester and his co-accused used to fake his death in jail, and whose exact cause of death remains shrouded in mystery.
Finally, we ask what the social media cult around Bester and Magudumana says about South Africa and its widespread reverence of wealth, which saw a convicted rapist and killer being toasted by high society - just because he was able to convince social elites that he was one of them.
