LISTEN: CCTV system covering Bester cell was not operating, MPs hear
Members of Parliament have heard the Mangaung maximum security prison's security systems were tampered with around the time of Thabo Bester's escape.
The company that runs the facility has appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services.
G4S director Kobus Groenewoud said in the early hours of 3 May last year, a fire broke out the isolation cell that the convicted rapist and murderer occupied.
READ: G4S grilled over prison staff lifestyle audits
A burnt body was later found.
Groenewald says an authorised laptop along with an unauthorised cell phone, were among the items confiscated and handed over to police for investigations.
He says when a persisting smell of a propellant was picked up, it changed the nature of the investigation.
"I think it is important to point out that in the early days this investigation took the form of a suicide and then from 25 May last year the police changed this into a murder investigation.
"There was also an independent investigation into the unnatural cause, this is a standard procedure. We as MCC, conducted the third and very independent investigation."
ALSO READ: G4S tell MPs Bester applied for single cell before escape
Groenewoud explained what investigations found when checking the prison's security systems.
Listen below:
