During an exclusive interview with the SABC, as seen in a video posted on X (the former social media platform formally known as Twitter) on Thursday, 12 October, Nastassja Jansen who is one of the former accused G4S employees roped in the Thabo Bester saga, said she is convinced that she was “framed” and used as a “scapegoat” in the elaborate prison escape plan.At the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Estelle de Lange dropped charges for three of the accused in the Thabo Bester case. Nastassja Jansen, Thabang Matthews Mier, and Moeketsi April Ramolula’s cases were withdrawn, SowetanLive reported.

 

 

The trio faced several charges including defeating the ends of justice, fraud, corruption, abetting an inmate to escape from lawful custody, concealing an escaped offender, violating a corpse, aiding, and arson.

“All the charges are then withdrawn against the three accused. You may stand down,” de Lange was quoted as saying.One of the former accused, Jansen has since shared her take in what she believes was her part in the disgraceful Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s controversy.

“I believe I was used as a scapegoat. I believe I was somehow framed [and] I don’t know how. I cannot explain that. And I also believe that the police did not do a proper investigation, because if they did, I was not going to sit in prison for 29 days,” Jansen said.MORE ABOUT THE COURT PROCEEDINGS
Dr Nandipha Magudumana and Thabo Bester were expected to share the dock for the first time since their arrest in Tanzania earlier this year. However, moments before the disgraced doctor made her court appearance, she was reported to have fainted. According to her lawyer, Machini Motloung, he alleged that Magudumana is one of a few inmates from Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre in Kroonstad who allegedly got food poisoning.