Thabo Bester makes a chilling confession [WATCH]
Tracking Thabo Bester takes a look back at Bester’s earlier days in crime. Watch a clip of a confession he made to the police.
Before becoming the mastermind of multimillion-rand scams, Thabo Bester was infamously known as the “Facebook Rapist,” who would rape models and steal laptops, cameras, and cellphones.
The savvy scammer used multiple aliases to lure beautiful women into his hotel rooms by pretending to be a hotshot businessman, model scout, and TV producer.
Bester’s early life of crime has been revisited in the Showmax docuseries Tracking Thabo Bester.
WATCH: THABO BESTER MAKES CHILLING CONFESSION
More than a decade ago, Thabo Bester received three life sentences for the rape of two women, the murder of his girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu, at a Cape Town guest house. He also served time for armed robbery with aggravating circumstances.
In a chilling confession before his sentencing, Thabo Bester admitted to all his crimes. The clip was filmed by forensic psychologist Dr Gerard Labuschagne in 2011.
In the footage, a then 23-year-old Bester – known as the “Facebook Rapist”, acknowledged that he had raped two women and killed another. He also touched on multiple topics relating to his arrests.
They include:
The “accidental” murder of his girlfriend, whom he stabbed to death
“If I wanted to kill her, I would’ve killed her in Durban, or the first night we got to Cape Town. I could have got her to Mtatha, where there are much less people, and killed her there.
“My intentions were never to kill anyone. With her, I liked her, but things got twisted…and we had a fight.”
Being haunted by his actions
“It drained me night and day. It ate me inside. I could not sleep”.
Handing himself over to the police
“I wanted to do right where I did wrong; I wanted to take responsibility. I wanted to give the people who got hurt in the process justice”.
Raping two women
“The rapes happened in a way where I didnt know [I was committing rape] until I left the premises. If I knew I was doing rape, I could’ve covered myself up by using certain methods.
“It only became known to me when I left.”
A desire to provide comfort and closure to victims’ families
“I do not want to put anyone through suffering. I never had a life, so if I go to jail forever, I don’t care.
A desire to one day be free
“As a human being, I want to be free one day, despite the fact that I feel guilty and [what I did was] wrong”.
A DANGER TO OTHER WOMEN?
In the clip, Thabo Bester was asked if he felt he was a danger to society and women in general.
He responded: “All these incidents happened…but I also feel that you should not worry about leaving your woman in a room with me [or] that I will rape her.”
‘FRAUD AND CONNING PEOPLE IS WHO HE IS’
Gerard Labuschagne spoke to eNCA about his experience with Thabo Bester, who faked his death and escaped prison in 2022.
The forensic psychologist – who also spoke in the Tracking Thabo Bester docuseries – state that the man he interviewed was “cold and calculating”.
He said: “He is a conman; he is trying to create an impression of what he wants that person to have him…..He had fraud convictions before those rapes, which involved fraudulently convincing people to come with him.
“Fraud and conning people is part of who he is. You cannot accept anything at face value of what Thabo Bester tells you”.