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A salon owner in Cape Town has spoken out about her time working for infamous murderer and rapist Thabo Bester and his accomplice lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana.
The beauty therapist said in an interview with IOL that the pair hired him in November 2022 to seek ladies for their modeling firm, “imedia.”
The Cape Town Nails Guru owner, who also owns an event management company, uses the trading name “Taffy Tally Marz”. He is also known by his other name “Talent”.
Taffy says he met Bester — dubbed the “Facebook rapist” — in November last year when he came to his salon for a haircut. The two exchanged numbers when Bester was leaving as he said he’d like to book an appointment for his next haircut.
“We started chatting on WhatsApp and he invited me for lunch at the Silo Hotel where he told me about his business ventures. He said that he was in property development and media-related work,” Taffy was quoted as saying.
Bester started visiting the salon twice a week to do his hair as Taffy would also braid it. A few weeks later, he introduced him to his wife, Dr Nandipha, and other people he said were the doctor’s cousins. Taffy did their nails.
Although he had questions about Dr Nandipha, because he knew her from social media and knew she was married, Taffy says he did not pay too much attention to it.
Taffy and Dr Nandipha started spending more time together. He was then employed as a recruiter for the couple’s modelling agency known as “Eye Model Management.”
“I recruited the girls as per the specific criteria they had given me,” Taffy says.
The beauty therapist says he’d find girls, send their pictures to the couple, and arrange meetings between the girls and Bester. In December, he was given money to arrange all the logistics for a model who had been flying from Johannesburg to Cape Town. He booked her accommodation at the Capital Hotel and was instructed by Bester to make her comfortable. Taffy says he was paid a lot of money by the couple.
However, he explained that he did not know he was working for a convicted killer and rapist who had escaped prison. He says he only found out when the couple made headlines.
Bester escaped from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein on 3 May last year by faking his death in a fire that broke out in his cell. He had been serving a life sentence for rape, murder, robbery and theft.
His modus operandi was to lure young women, rape and rob them under the guise of lucrative modelling jobs. One of his victims, Nomfundo Tyhulu, a car saleswoman who sold him a BMW in 2011 in Sandton, and who later dated the Facebook Rapist, lost her life after he stabbed her to death in Cape Town at a bed and breakfast.
The convicted criminal and his partner-in-crime were arrested in Tanzania on 7 April and returned to South Africa six days later.
Dr. Nandipha is accused of murder, arson, fraud, obstructing the administration of justice, and assisting and abetting her fugitive companion. She was remanded in custody after her bail was denied on Monday.
Bester, who is being held at the Kgosi Mampuru II C-max prison, appeared in court for the first time last week. His case has been rescheduled for May 16th.