By GroundUp
The following extract is taken from The Thabo Story: The Facebook Rapist, the Celebrity Doctor and the Escape from Cell 35, a new book by Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn.
Nomfundo Tyhulu’s relationship with Thabo Bester started with a lie and ended in her murder. The little that is known about what happened between them is from court testimony, and even then it is mostly based on Bester’s account, parts of which may have been fabricated.
Tyhulu sold cars at the BMW dealership in Sandton that Bester visited in early 2011 to buy a new BMW 1 Series. She was 26 years old. Bester probably didn’t use his name, but he did tell her he was working on a television production and that she would be a good fit to star in the show. Of course, he did not mention that he had just come out of prison for fraud.
At the time, he was living in Durban while she stayed in Johannesburg and regularly kept in touch via phone calls and text messages. In early September 2011, eight months after they met, Tyhulu called Bester to let him know that she had a new job starting in October.
Bester decided to take her to Cape Town before then, with the promise of using her in a photo shoot. The couple flew to Cape Town on 19 September and booked into the One&Only, a five-star hotel where a room costs between R13,000 and R36,000 a night. They stayed there for two nights.
On the 21st, the couple checked in at the Roman Retreat on the chic Sunset Beach estate.
That evening, they had a heated argument about Bester seeing one of his former girlfriends. Tyhulu thought she and Bester were “exclusive” but Bester was still playing the field. After the argument they went to sleep.
At 2 am, she woke to find Bester pointing a knife at her and telling her to give him her phone and laptop. He lunged at her with the knife where she lay in the bed. Tyhulu kicked and struggled against him, trying to get the knife from his hand. They wrestled until, suddenly, the tussle stopped. She was now face down with the knife in her chest and blood seeping into the bedding.
Bester tied her hands behind her back with a T-shirt. He demanded the password to her laptop. Five hours later, at 7 am, he left the room carrying a bag containing Tyhulu’s laptop and cellphone. He told the owner of the guest house that she was still sleeping and should not be disturbed until 2 pm. He asked for a lift to central Cape Town. That evening he boarded a flight back to Durban.
At about 9 pm, the owners of the guesthouse became concerned that they had not heard from Tyhulu. They entered the room and discovered her lifeless and bloodied body.
The Thabo Bester Story went on sale on Wednesday.
This article was originally published by GroundUp and edited for use by Scrolla.Africa.
Pictured above: The cover of the Bester book.
Image source: GroundUp
