Police fail to collect evidence of Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s trips. Nandipha used Bester’s alias to stay in luxury accommodation in Bloemfontein and Ballito in the weeks before he escaped.

• Bookings for luxury accommodation made in the name of “TK Nkwana” reveal Nandipha Magudumana’s movements in the months leading up to Thabo Bester’s escape.
• An invoice found in Magudumana and Bester’s abandoned Hyde Park house proves that Magudumana visited Bloemfontein in March and April 2022.
• The police have been informed of this, but have not yet picked up the invoice from the property manager.

In the weeks preceding the escape, Nandipha Magudumana, who is accused of murder and facilitating Thabo Bester’s escape, made reservations for luxury hotel in Bloemfontein and Ballito using Bester’s alias. For these reservations, more than R120,000 was spent.

Police fail to collect evidence of Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s trips

An invoice for a five-star hotel in Bloemfontein was reported to the police more than a week ago. The Hyde Park residence where Magudumana and Bester were staying had the invoice left behind. The area of the property containing the bill and Madungama’s notebook was not searched by the police during their raid on the home. As of Friday, neither the police nor the alleged hotel had dispatched anyone to collect the bill or journal.

On May 3, 2022, Thabo Bester faked his own death in a prison cell fire in order to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Center in Bloemfontein. While imprisoned, he occasionally signed lease agreements using the alias “TK Nkwana” and with a forged ID under that name.

At least ten reservations at upscale residences in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were made using the “TK Nkwana” Airbnb profile in the two months prior to the escape.

For the weekend of March 12–14, 2022, one of these reservations was for a mansion on an estate at Ballito Bay, KwaZulu-Natal. The Airbnb host told GroundUp that he had a phone conversation with a man named “TK” prior to the booking. The reservation was R18,000.

“TK” offered the names and ID numbers of four persons to stay in the house, according to the Airbnb host. The ID number for Magudumana was given, however she went by the moniker “Dr. Enjoy Magudumana Nkwana.” Three other people were included, including two co-directors of Magudumana’s business, Vibes Africa International.

It is claimed that Magudumana’s kids stayed there as well, although they were too young to be asked for their ID numbers.

On 24 March 2022, a week and a half later, Magudumana arrived at a posh hotel in Bloemfontein, which is 30 minutes away from Mangaung Correctional Centre. When checking in, she handed them a copy of her ID. However, the online reservation was made under the name TK Nkwana.

Magudumana paid the hotel a second visit on April 13–14, according to the hotel manager who spoke with GroundUp. “TK Nkwana” also made the second booking.

The body that was discovered in Bester’s prison cell was one of three that Magudumana claimed from the state morgue in Bloemfontein, the police (SAPS) acknowledged in Parliament on Thursday. This occurred in early April, according to a prior article by The Sunday Times.

The prison’s operator and partial owner, G4S, informed Parliament on Wednesday that Bester began receiving frequent visits from Magudumana in 2017. The most recent visit was on December 20, 2021. However, the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) reported that Magudumana had scheduled a meeting with Bester on February 14, 2022—Valentine’s Day. Later, this appointment was postponed.

Bester requested to be confined in a single cell on April 15, 2022, the day after Magudumana checked out of the hotel in Bloemfontein because of security reasons. Later on, though, he withdrew his application. JICS informed Parliament that throughout the course of their inquiry, an inmate informed them that Bester had received a covert, unrecorded visit on April 16.

On April 19, Magudumana checked back in to the Ballito lodging and stayed for a further 11 nights. This time, he was joined by three other people, one of whom was a co-director of Vibes Africa International. “TK” (one of Bester’s aliases) contacted the host directly on WhatsApp and made the reservation. The entire cost of the eleven-night stay was R90,800. It was scheduled months in advance and paid for on 23 March.

Bester successfully petitioned to be imprisoned in a single cell on April 28, 2022, and was transferred. On May 3, a fire started in his cell, resulting in the burning of a body, and he managed to escape. Magudumana collected the body from the state morgue two days later, on May 5, claiming to be Bester’s customary law wife.

On May 9, Magudumana left the country via the Beitbridge border crossing. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi made this known on Friday. On May 12, she left again for South Africa.

The Airbnb account was used at least ten more times in the months following Thabo Bester’s departure, with the final reservation being made in February 2023. According to GroundUp, the Hawks conducted an inspection of the Ballito estate where Magudumana resided in the first week of April.

Could Bester have visited Magudumana in the Bloemfontein hotel?