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- Police and a private security company Fidelity ADT allegedly helped find Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana.
- The couple was found in Arusha, Tanzania on Friday.
- News24 understands that Magudumana’s aesthetic clinic, which was being built next door to Bester’s Hyde Park home, was bankrolled by a number of investors.
South African Crime Intelligence officers had, as of last week, allegedly tracked fugitive Thabo Bester to Tanzania where they monitored him for a while before pouncing on Friday night.
Bester was arrested in Arusha together with Dr Nandipha Magudumana and a Mozambican national who was allegedly assisting them.
It is believed that they were on their way to Kenya at the time of their arrest.
Sources who spoke to News24 on condition of anonymity said crime intelligence knew as of last week that Bester and Magudumana were in Tanzania, and the news of their arrest was welcome with much jubilation.
Private security company Fidelity ADT has also been hunting them ever since, and last week CEO Wahl Bartmann put up R100 000 for information that would lead to their arrest.
Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana were arrested in Tanzania.
Bartmann said the company received many calls, and some of the callers were not even interested in the reward money.
“They just wanted him caught”.
READ | Thabo Bester, Nandipha Magudumana arrested in Tanzania, found with multiple passports
He said those tips led to the identification of the vehicle the couple were using, and the Fidelity Business Intelligence Centre were able to trace the vehicle using CCTV cameras.
According to Bartmaan, the couple left the country through the Zimbabwean border and then made their way into Tanzania, where they were apprehended.
Police and Justice and the Department of Correctional Services said in a joint statement on Saturday that the couple were being processed and that a delegation from South Africa comprising of senior officials would depart for Tanzania on Sunday.
Police minister Bheki Cele said during a press briefing on Saturday that Bester and Magudumana were found in possession of multiple passports.
“None of the passports was stamped,” he said.
Cele said Bester and his so-called accomplices were arrested 10 kilometres away from the Kenyan border.
He said:
It looks like they were heading into another country.
Meanwhile, News24 understands that Magudumana’s aesthetic clinic, which was being built next door to Bester’s Hyde Park home, was bankrolled by a number of investors.
Authorities are working to trace these investors in a quest to find out who was working with Bester with his nefarious activities on the other side of the prison.
During Saturday’s press briefing an emboldened Cele, said he now had “extra confidence” in the police. He confirmed that the suspects were arrested following joint efforts by Interpol and the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit.
The house that Dr Nandipha Magudumana and Thabo Bester are believed to have been renting in the plush suburb of Hyde Park, north of Johannesburg. Photo: Mpho Raborife/News24
“They (suspects) were spotted by people working with South Africa (authorities). They were driving a black SUV and were followed from a hotel while heading to the border of another country,” he said.
Cele said it was discovered there that each of the suspects had several passports with them.
He indicated that they were yet to ascertain how the suspects reached Tanzania.“Their entry into Tanzania was illegal. Their passports were not stamped so we do not yet know how and when they entered Tanzania because those details are not on their passports,” said Cele.
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