Where you can watch’ Tracking Thabo Bester’
The Johannesburg High Court has given Showmax the green light to push forward and stream the ‘Tracking Thabo Bester’ docu-series.
Tracking Thabo Bester – the gripping Showmax docuseries about the brazen South African criminal and his partner Nandipha Magudumana – has been given the green light to stream.
This after the duo’s separate interdicts to halt the production was denied in the Johannesburg High Court.
The news comes just hours before the series premieres on Showmax.
Bester and Nandipha are currently awaiting their pre-trial in the Free State Court. Along with seven others, the duo are facing charges of assisting Bester’s prison escape, fraud, corruption, and violating multiple bodies.
‘TRACKING THABO BESTER’ TO GO AHEAD
On Friday, 15 March, Johannesburg High Court Judge Stuart Wilson dismissed the application filed by the convicted rapist and murderer, and celebrity doctor to have the Tracking Thabo Bester documentary axed.
The couple have been instructed to foot their own legal costs arising from the lawsuit.
Both Bester and Nandipha argued that they had not given Showmax the rights to produce, distribute, or commercially exploit a documentary or film on his life.
However, Wilson dismissed their claims, claiming the docuseries was a matter of public interest.
Welcoming the decision, Steven Budlender, Group General Counsel at MultiChoice, said in a statement: “MultiChoice is delighted that the Johannesburg High Court has upheld the public’s right to watch the Tracking Thabo Bester documentary.
“The fascinating documentary will shed light on the allegations against Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana and allow the public the opportunity to make up their own minds and opinions about what took place.”
HOW AND WHEN TO WATCH
The first two episodes of Tracking Thabo Bester will be available to stream exclusively on Showmax from 16:00 on Friday, 15 March 2024.
Episodes three and four will be made available in a week, on Friday, 22 March. The series was produced by IdeaCandy, who also helmed Devilsdorp and Rosemary’s Hitlist.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Tracking Thabo Bester is a four-part true-crime documentary that will document the shocking news that the convicted murderer and rapist did not burn to death in his Mangaung prison cell. Instead, he was seen shopping alongside Nandipha Magudumana at Woolworths in Sandton City.
According to Showmax, the first episode follows GroundUp journalists Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn as they investigate an anonymous tip-off. The duo co-wrote the bestselling book The Thabo Bester Story: The Facebook Rapist.
Subsequent episodes look at why Bester was called the Facebook rapist and in jail originally. It also explores how a celebrity doctor fell for a convicted criminal and left her children to go on the run with him to Tanzania. Finally, viewers will get a look at who really died in Cell 35.
The documentary will see interviews by prisoners and prison warders at Mangaung Correctional Centre; the family of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, whose body was found in Cell 35; Nandipha’s brother Nkosinathi Sekeleni, and former South African Police Service head profiler Dr Gérard Labuschagne, who interviewed Bester after his 2012 arrest for rape and murder.
The documentary also shows the media’s and social media’s reactions to the story.