Thabo Bester’s bid to be moved back to Gauteng prison struck off the roll [VIDEO]

Thabo Bester addressing the court at his previous court appearance on 5 May. Picture: Gallo Images Convicted murderer and “Facebook rapist” Thabo Bester will remain behind bars at the country’s most tightest security facility after he failed to convince the court that his matter was urgent. Bester’s urgent application challenging his transfer to the eBongweni Super Maximum Correctional Facility in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), was struck from the roll for lack of urgency on Tuesday.

He approached the Pretoria High Courtwith an urgent application challenging his transfer from Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria to the eBongweni Super Maximum in January. Bester wanted the court to set aside the decision and order his transfer back to the correctional facility in Pretoria. However, Judge Elizabeth Mamoloko Kubushi found that Bester had not made out a case on the founding affidavit for bringing the matter on an extremely urgent basis.

“There is no cogent reason mentioned in the founding affidavit why this matter was set down on such stringent timeframes, without giving the respondents adequate time to file their answering affidavits. “I’m thus not persuaded that this matter is so urgent that anything more drastic than enrolment on the motion roll in the ordinary roll and on short notice is required,” said Kubushi. Earlier, Bester’s lawyer, Advocate Mo Afrika Maile, said they are already struggling to prepare for Bester’s trial.

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“As we are busy preparing for a trial, which will be set down on 18 March. Now it shows us to say we do not have more time to prepare for a trial. So, the reason we say, when the first respondent, the Correctional Services, says move him to eBongweni Super Max, it then cripples our case, because we are completely failing to consult.

“We have already explained that Mr Thabo Bester will suffer if this matter is not addressed urgently. One of those we talk about the trial preparations to say we were even in court on the 5th of February, addressing the issues with consultation, when we are busy addressing these issues, the respondent chooses to ignore everything,” Maile argued.

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