The Jacob Zuma Foundation says the picture that is making rounds on social networks, purporting to be that of former president Jacob Zuma standing with the convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester at his Nkandla home, is fake.
Bester is making headlines after escaping from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in 2022 and fleeing South Africa with his alleged accomplice Dr Nandipha Magudumana.
Spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi says the picture is malicious and an attempt to tarnish the former president.
“A picture that has been put there is a definite photoshop. Look at the right arm of this alleged Bester fellow in that picture, it is very thin. Just before around the elbow, you can see that this has been concocted and importantly you can also look at the hands, you can see that this thing was [a] concocted picture. The hands in that picture are much darker than the arms. The arms are all yellowish. This is just a malicious photoshop to try and continue to paint [former] president Zuma as a wayward person meeting wayward people and all of that … it is a malicious photoshop,” explains Manyi.
Let’s expose this photoshop even more.
The real hands of Bester are lighter and more bony than the photoshop on the left.
This should end the malicious insinuations.
Now back to #PhalaPhalaFarmGate and the letter by President Mbeki pic.twitter.com/DURKsA6hLG— Mzwanele Manyi (@MzwaneleManyi) April 14, 2023
Meanwhile, the Department of Correctional Services has refuted claims that the convicted murderer and rapist is at the Mangaung Correctional Centre.
In a statement, the department says Bester is at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional facility.
“The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has noted false information circulating in various platforms, that offender Thabo Bester has been returned to Manguang Correctional Centre. We can state that Bester was transported to Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional facility,” reads the statement.
The department has also added that no complaints have been filed about threats to Bester’s life, and that he has been taking his meals.
“In addition, DCS can confirm that there is no complaint filed about threats to his life and that offender Bester is taking meals.”
Thabo Bester Saga | Case postponed to 16 May
