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Netflix’s new true-crime documentary, Beauty and the Bester, has gained everyone’s attention. The three-part docuseries premiered on September 12, 2025, and narrates the story of how a South African man named Thabo Bester faked his death and fled prison in 2022.
However, due to social media reports, which claimed he was alive and living in Tanzania, the rapist and his accomplice, Dr. Nandipha Magudumana, were arrested in 2023. Currently, the duo, along with several others connected to Bester, are awaiting a trial for all the crimes that they have committed over the years.
The Netflix miniseries showcased a detailed narrative of Betser’s crimes, which put him in jail, his eventual escape in 2022, and his arrest in 2023.
More on this in our story.
Beauty and the Bester: Where are Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana now? Details explored
As shown in Netflix’s Beauty and the Bester, the South Africa-born man was arrested and put in prison in 2012, due to multiple rape charges and the murder of Nomfundo Tyhulu. Bester’s case was one of the viral cases in Africa due to his MO. He used to fool women on social media by telling them that he would help them enter the glamour world and become models.
As the women came to meet him, he raped them and also stole valuables from them. However, it was the murder of his girlfriend, Nomfundo, which got him arrested. Even in prison, he was popular for his communicative techniques that impressed everyone around him. He also befriended a celebrity doctor named Nandipha Magudumana.
According to Beauty and the Bester, in 2022, the prison where Bester was held caught fire, and later a charred body was found. At the time, it was declared that it might be Bester’s body. As the investigation into the charred body was going on, Dr. Magudumana, now claimed to be Bester’s wife, wanted to take the body and bury it, raising suspicions among many.
Later, while the police confirmed that the body found in the prison was not that of Bester, investigative journalists also found Dr. Magudumana with a man who looked similar to Bester. The final episode of the Netflix docuseries focused on Bester and Magudumana’s arrest in Tanzania.
On April 8, 2023, the police confirmed that they had arrested Bester and his accomplices. As of 2025, the duo is in custody and awaiting their trial.
More about Netflix’s Beauty and the Bester
As per reports, Bester has also tried to block the Netflix docuseries, Beauty and the Bester, from being released, but his case was rejected since all of the information about his case is already public. Bester is now in prison, continuing his sentencing on his earlier rape and murder charges, and awaiting the trial of the new charges.
Furthermore, Dr. Magudumana has maintained that she was forced to help Bester in his escape from the prison. She is now in Kroonstad’s Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre, awaiting her trial for her hand in helping Bester escape after faking his death in prison.
The Netflix docuseries reveals the details about Bester’s case and includes interviews from friends and family members of the accused, as well as the detectives and journalists, among others.
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