Police have identified the burnt body that was found in Facebook rapist Thabo Bester’s cell at Mangaung Correctional Centre.
The identity of the dead man was discovered through a DNA test match with his mother.
He has been identified as Katlego Mpholo, who had been missing for over a year according to his family, and who had last seen him in the beginning of March 2022.
Katlego’s father Mpho spoke to Newzroom Afrika’s Linda Mnisi and said the family was heartbroken by the news which they received on Friday from police.
The dad said: “We never thought that wherever he is that he is no more, we had hoped that we would see him alive, vibrant as he was but after receiving the news on Friday and Saturday... I couldn’t sleep.”
Katlego, who would post his every move on social media, was declared missing in April last year when his family filed a police report.
The family first suspected that something was wrong when he was no longer visible on social media while his ouma, with whom he lived, also revealed that she had not seen him for more than a month.
Mpho also rubbished the allegations that his son collapsed in town and was rushed to the hospital, where he died and was taken to a state mortuary.
“We want answers. My own analysis of this, it looks like they kidnapped my son long ago, they killed him and kept him for a long time until the body decomposed so certain signs on the body can disappear then they burnt him,” he added.
An autopsy report had shown that Katlego died due to blunt force trauma to the head and was already dead before the prison cell caught fire.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za