Multi-million mansions, R3 billion assets: Thabo Bester’s lavish life

Facebook rapist Thabo Bester was living in R12 million mansions, scamming people worth millions of rands and reportedly had R3 billion assets.

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FACEBOOK RAPIST: LIVING IN A MANSIONS

Sunday Times,reports that the fugitive Thabo Bester was living it up in his R12 million mansion in Hyde Park, north of Johannesburg since he staged his death in a fire in Mangaung prison in May 2022.

Insiders from 4Tune Property Smiths estate agency told Sunday Times: “Bester and his socialite doctor girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana flaunted their wealth and spent millions on rent for more than one property.”

The couple rented properties from 2020 in the upmarket suburbs of Hyde Park, Sandown, and Morningside, according to 4Tune Property Smiths staff.

• Bester and Magudumana reportedly used five houses over the past nine months;
• Caused R600,000 worth of damage to a second house on 2nd Road.
• The pair also had two rented 2nd Road properties, which they wanted to sell in secret earlier this year.
• The couple also made R1.8m worth of unauthorised alterations to the mansion they lived in.
• They also drove two new Porsches, wore the latest fashions, were often in arrears as their rent was R175,000 a month for all the properties.

The publication adds that Bester left his R1.5 million watch on his bedside when he disappeared with Magudumana and her two children on Monday, 20 March from their rented mansion. 

Bester was reportedly also cheating on Magudumana as Sunday Times reveals that she found out in February that he was also renting a home from 4Tune in Morningside for his mistress.

ALSO READ: Thabo Bester saga: Nandipha Magudumana abandons her rented mansion

BESTER: ‘LAVISH LIFESTYLE’

According to Sunday Times, the fugitive signed lease agreements, had video calls with property managers from his jail cell, and was assisted by his partner Magudumana, who explained that her “husband was working overseas”. After his prison break, Magudumana announced “her husband” had returned from his overseas stint.

According to a GroundUp report, Bester also ran a media company from jail and pretended to be the chairman of 21st Century Media.

“Chairman Tom Motsepe” held a video call into the conference from “New York”, while the audience sang happy birthday to him on 13 June, which is Thabo Bester’s birthday.

TimesLive reports Bester boasted to several lawyers that he had his assets seized by the AFU, which the company has denied.

His alleged R3 billion assets were seized including 14 cars, as well as R9.5 million Mercedes-Maybach GLS600, Bentley Bentayga W12 for R7 million and a Bentley Continental GT V8 worth R9 million.

He also claimed his million bank accounts were frozen by the AFU, which were; R43,848,44,12 in the HSBC account, over R230 million in his NatWest account as well as a R872,393,984,91 Absa bank account.

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THABO: HOW HE SCAMMED PEOPLE

News24 reports that Bester and Dr Nandipha were running a scam construction company called Arum Properties were they convinced several people to pay millions of rand for construction projects, but never delivered the goods, when he escaped prison.

Arum Properties told GroundUp that their clients only realised after signing on and paying their deposits that something was wrong.

ALSO READ: Dr Nandi: Meet the woman allegedly linked to rapist Thabo Bester