Shivangi Sinha
In May 2022, reports surfaced that convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester had died by suicide inside Mangaung Correctional Centre, a high-security prison in South Africa. The news shocked many, as the circumstances were unusual since his cell was reportedly on fire. Months later, doubts began to emerge, and suspicions grew when a photograph appeared showing Bester alive alongside Dr. Nandipha Magudumana, a well-known aesthetic doctor. Their association made headlines and sparked a nationwide manhunt. The pair was eventually arrested in April 2023 in Tanzania. Netflix’s ‘Beauty and the Bester’ traces the timeline of these events and explores their connection.
Nandipha Magudumana Made a Successful Career for Herself in the Medical Field
Nandipha Sekeleni was born on September 15, 1989, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region. She completed her schooling in Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal, before pursuing a career in medicine. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sekeleni, and her brother, Nkosinathi Sekeleni, always admired her clarity of purpose and determination to succeed. In 2013, she graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Biomedical Sciences, a Bachelor of Surgery, and a Bachelor of Medicine. That same year, she married Mkhuseli Magudumana, and together they had two children. At the time, her life appeared well-settled and promising.
In 2014, Nandipha began her medical career at Edenvale Hospital, and a year later, she joined Far East Rand Hospital. Over time, she built a reputation as a skilled physician specializing in anesthesiology, dermatology, plastic surgery, and related treatments. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, she fulfilled her long-held entrepreneurial dream in 2017 by founding Optimum Medical Aesthetics Solutions in Morningside, Sandton. Simultaneously, she grew her personal brand on social media and earned recognition and respect for her expertise. In 2021, after her medical license expired, she co-founded Arum Properties, a construction company, with a man named TK Nkwana, who was later revealed to be convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.
Thabo Bester Was Serving a Life Sentence When he Started a Media Company
Thabo Bester was born on June 13, 1986, in Soweto, South Africa. Government records indicate that his mother, Maria Mabaso (also known as Miesie), was unable to register him as a South African citizen at birth because she herself was not registered with the Department of Home Affairs. She worked on a farm and did not have the resources to put things in order. Details about his early life remain scarce, but at 17, he was convicted of an unspecified crime. At 19, he was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud. After his release on parole, Bester became active on social media, particularly Facebook. Fascinated by the entertainment industry, he embarked on a criminal path and earned the nickname “Facebook Rapist” for luring women with fake modeling offers before attacking and robbing them.
Bester was arrested in late 2011 and pleaded guilty to two rape charges. In 2012, he also pleaded guilty to killing model Nomfundo Tyhulu, whom he had been dating around September 2011. He stabbed her in a Cape Town guesthouse and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 25 years. He then started serving his sentence at Mangaung Prison, a maximum-security facility in Bloemfontein. While incarcerated, he enrolled in online courses and gained access to a laptop. He allegedly used it to start a fraudulent company, 21st Century Media, in 2018.
Nanadipha Magudumana and Thabo Bester Were Allegedly on the Run After He Escaped From Prison
According to an affidavit filed by Nandipha Magudumana, she stated that she first met Thabo Bester while they were both studying at the University of the Witwatersrand. However, there are no records of his enrollment there. She claimed they lost contact after graduation but reconnected when she began visiting him in prison. Magudumana said Bester proposed to her in 2020, making her his common-law wife. After Bester was declared dead on May 3, 2022, it has been reported that she attempted to claim his remains, while referring to herself as his wife and expressing her wish to arrange his funeral. Her request was denied because she was still legally married to her husband. By January 2023, the case had turned into a homicide investigation. In the months that followed, media outlets began questioning Bester’s reported death, and by March 2023, a news agency alleged that he had faked his death and escaped prison.
It has been alleged that after his escape, Bester lived with Nandipha in a rented mansion in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, for about 10 months. Arum Properties, the company they co-founded, was also condemned as an allegedly fraudulent operation. In April 2023, it was confirmed that the remains initially believed to be Bester’s were actually those of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, a man who had gone missing in April 2022. This revelation triggered an urgent manhunt, and after several attempts, both Bester and Magudumana were arrested on April 8, 2023, in Arusha, Tanzania, before being deported to South Africa.
Nanadipha Magudumana and Thabo Bester Are Awaiting Trial Today
Thabo Bester was immediately returned to prison to continue serving his life sentence for his prior rape and murder convictions. Nandipha Magudumana applied for bail, but it was denied, and she was charged with arson, assisting an inmate’s escape, corruption, defeating the ends of justice, fraud, harboring and concealing an escaped prisoner, and violating a body. It is alleged that Nandipha helped Bester while he was incarcerated, allegedly facilitating his business operations and playing a critical role in planning his escape. She remains in custody at the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre in Kroonstad, Free State, awaiting trial, and is still legally married to Mkhuseli Magudumana. She has maintained that she was coerced into fleeing and had only helped Bester under duress.
Bester has also been additionally charged with violating a corpse, fraud, escape, and defeating the ends of justice while being held at Kgosi Mampuru Prison. To date, 12 people have been charged in connection with the jailbreak. In May 2025, Nandipha petitioned to have her arrest in Tanzania declared unlawful, but the request was rejected. The trial, initially scheduled to begin in February 2025, was postponed to July 2025 and has yet to commence.
Read More: Casey White: Where is the Jailbreak Fugitive Now?
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