Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester ran a glamorous media company from prison and created a new persona “ Tom Motsepe ”

Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester ran a glamorous media company from prison and created a new persona “ Tom Motsepe ” according to Group Up News. Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester was running a multi-million rand scam business while serving a life sentence for rape and murder at Mangaung Correctional Centre.

Bester posed as the “chairman” of 21st Century Media, a scam event and production company, which was made to look like a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. 21st Century Media became the subject of a social media storm in 2018 for promoting a “Women in Media” conference with Hollywood A-listers as guest speakers, which turned out to be a scam.

Ground Up has pictures and video footage of the glitzy launch of 21st Century Media in 2018, held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton. The event was attended by members of Johannesburg’s high society, including celebrities Amanda Du Pont and Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Attendees were told that the chairman of the company, “Tom Motsepe”, would video call in from New York.

But unbeknown to the audience, the man appearing on the big screen was actually convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, speaking from prison. At the time of the event, Bester was serving a life sentence at Mangaung Correctional Center, a private maximum security prison operated by multinational company G4S. GroundUp published  compelling evidence last week that Bester faked his death in a cell fire and escaped from prison in May 2022. There are also indications that he has been running a new business with celebrity doctor Dr Nandi.

Thabo Bester has used aliases throughout his criminal career. While running 21st Century Media, he was known as “Tom Motsepe” and claimed to be related to businessman Patrice Motsepe. GroundUp spoke to several former employees of 21st Century Media. They said that “Tom” was hands-on in the company’s operations and would send money whenever it was needed. Everyone was acting under direct instructions from “Tom”.

According to former employees, he was able to persuade people to quit their jobs at established media houses to join the company. He had researched the industry well and senior members of the media knew about him, one former employee told GroundUp. Recruits of 21st Century Media were led to believe they would be working with an industry-leading company. “Tom” introduced himself to them as an executive of 21st Century Fox and Sky Digital.

A Twitter account for “Tom Motsepe” contains photos of Bester’s face edited onto other people’s bodies. In one picture, his face is edited onto American actor Michael B. Jordan’s body.