From Ananias Mathe to Bongani Moyo: 4 prisoners who escaped from C-Max

“Facebook” rapist and murderer Thabo Bester's escape from prison has put the spotlight on loopholes in the department of correctional services and raised concerns among many about the possibility of future prison escapes. 

Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022. He was recaptured in Tanzania with his lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana last week.

The couple were arrested with a Mozambican who allegedly aided them in their run from authorities.

Bester has been sent to the maximum security Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria.

Here are four notable escapes from the facility in the past two decades:

Ananias Mathe

Houdini-like serial rapist‚ robber and murderer Mathe was famous for reportedly rubbing petroleum jelly over his body to slip away from the high security C Max Prison in Pretoria in 2006.

Mathe died in 2016 at the King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban. It was later discovered he escaped prison after paying warders an R80,000 bribe.

Sunday Times established the bribe was paid to warders by four members of Mathe’s gang who raised the money in the village of Xicumbane in the Xai Xai district of Mozambique where he lived with his two wives and five children.