Karabo Mokoena’s killer Sandile Mantsoe. Image via @ayanda_mredlana/X
Correctional Services respond to claims Sandile Mantsoe pulled a Thabo Bester
There have been growing rumours Karabo Mokoena’s killer, Sandile Mantsoe, was spotted in Cape Town and Johannesburg in the past few months.
Karabo Mokoena’s killer Sandile Mantsoe. Image via @ayanda_mredlana/X
Sandile Mantsoe, who was handed an effective 32-year sentence in 2018 for the murder of his girlfriend Karabo Mokoena, is still behind bars – according to the Justice and Correctional Services Department on Monday, 2 October.
This comes after numerous rumours that Mantsoe had “pulled a Thabo Bester” and escaped prison.
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SANDILE MANTSOE ‘STILL IN PRISON’
Spokesperson for the Justice and Correctional Services Department, Chrispin Phiri dismissed the allegations on social media platform X, confirming that the killer is locked up at the Standerton Correctional Centre in Mpumalanga.
“At about 4:35pm we asked for an assurance that offender Sandile Kagiso Mantsoe is still in custody.
“Confirmation: he is at Standerton Correctional Centre with other further charged offenders to make a total of eight in the cell. He is at the centre and he never went out today,” Phiri said.
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KIDNAPPING, KILLING AND FRAUD
Mantsoe was arrested and charged in May 2017 with the kidnapping of Mokoena after her charred body was found in an open veld in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg.
He was sentenced to 30 years for murder, five years for assault and four years for defeating the ends of justice.
The convicted murderer, who was detained at the Mangaung Correctional Services in Bloemfontein, is also facing fraud charges after allegedly luring unsuspecting government employees into investing R2 million into his company, Trillion Dollar Legacy. His next appearance date is 18 October in Evander Court, Mpumalanga.
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‘PULLING A THABO BESTER’
A number of people on X claimed that the country was in for another Thabo Bester saga after allegations Mantsoe was spotted in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
In May 2022, Bester – a murderer and rapist – brazenly escaped out of Mangaung Correctional Centre after staging his death in a fire.
Months after his audacious escape, Bester was spotted grocery shopping at Woolworth with his girlfriend, fraud-accused celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana. The pair had been living it up at an upmarket mansion in Hyde Park.
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Following a manhunt, Bester and Magudumana were arrested in Tanzania making their way to Kenya.
Bester, who is detained at the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Tshwane, is expected back in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on 11 October.
