Court to hear urgent application by Bester to be moved from eBongweni prison

The Pretoria High Court will hear an urgent application by convicted killer and rapist Thabo Bester to be moved from the country’s only super-maximum correctional facility.

Bester is challenging his transfer to the eBongweni Super Maximum Correctional Facility after being kept at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility in Pretoria since his capture in Tanzania, where he was on the run in 2023.

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He is facing charges linked to his escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre, where he was serving a life sentence in 2022.

Since his incarceration at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility, Bester has been complaining to the courts about the conditions and the difficulties that he has experienced in consulting his lawyers.

But those conditions have only become more severe as he has been moved to the country’s only super-maximum-security prison, eBongweni.

The facility is known for keeping inmates in single cells for 23 hours, allowing them only one hour of exercise.

On Tuesday morning, Bester’s lawyers are expected to argue for his return to Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility and highlight challenges that they have experienced when trying to consult with him at eBongweni Super Maximum Correctional Facility