Thabo Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer, launched legal action on Thursday to stop Netflix from broadcasting a three-part documentary about his life, including his alleged 2022 prison escape, as the South African High Court prepared to rule shortly before the series' scheduled global release.
Bester's lawyers argued the programme, titled Beauty and the Bester, was defamatory and risked infringing his right to a fair trial on outstanding allegations related to the reported escape and other offences. The streaming service defended the production as giving victims a long-denied platform to speak. Judge Sulet Potterill told the court she would hand down a decision around 30 minutes before Netflix's planned release on Friday.
Bester was convicted in 2012 of the rape and murder of his model girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu, and in 2011 of raping and robbing two other women. He became known in South Africa as the "Facebook rapist" after allegedly using the social media site to lure victims. In 2022 authorities said a fire at a maximum-security prison resulted in a charred body they believed to be Bester's; investigators later determined the remains were of another person and Bester was unaccounted for.
Prosecutors allege that Bester lived undetected for about a year in Johannesburg under an assumed identity, aided by his partner, celebrity skin doctor Nandipha Magudumana. The couple were arrested in April 2023 in Tanzania and deported to South Africa. They have been charged with multiple offences, including violating a corpse, defeating the ends of justice and fraud, and are currently in custody awaiting trial. Neither has yet entered a plea.
Magudumana is among those seeking to bar the documentary's release, and she appears in the programme, according to court filings. Bester's lead counsel, Advocate Moafrika Wa Maila, told the court the film amounted to a "kangaroo court" and that there was no proof his client had escaped custody, saying other explanations — such as parole or administrative error — could account for his absence from prison records.
Netflix's attorney, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argued the documentary was a legitimate journalistic project that provides survivors and victims with an opportunity to be heard after years of silence. "This documentary gives the victims of Thabo Bester a platform to be heard after years of silence. To silence the film is to silence them again," he told the court.
Justice Potterill queried Netflix about the timing of the planned release and said a ruling would be issued shortly before that time. South African media reported the court session took place in Johannesburg.
The case has drawn intense public attention in South Africa, where sexual violence is a pervasive societal issue and the alleged circumstances of Bester's disappearance from custody prompted national outrage. News of Bester's reported escape and the discovery that the burned body at the prison was not his sparked scrutiny of correctional procedures and calls for accountability within the prison service.
Journalists, victim advocates and legal experts have voiced differing views on the balance between free expression and the rights of defendants to a fair trial. Courts in South Africa have at times granted interdicts to prevent publications or broadcasts deemed likely to prejudice pending criminal matters, but they must weigh that risk against constitutional protections for freedom of expression and the public interest in reporting on matters of safety, justice and wrongdoing.
If the court refuses to interdict Netflix, Beauty and the Bester will be available to an international audience, and its release could feed into ongoing legal proceedings, defence lawyers said in court. If the interdict is granted, the streaming platform could be prevented from broadcasting the series pending trial outcomes or further judicial review.
The High Court's ruling will determine whether the documentary can be viewed globally as scheduled. The hearing and anticipated decision come amid continued investigations and separate prosecutions related to the alleged escape and the offences that originally brought Bester to prison.
The proceedings underline tensions that often arise when media productions examine unresolved criminal matters: the rights of survivors and the public interest in exposure and accountability on one hand, and the defendant's constitutional safeguards and the integrity of the criminal process on the other. The court's decision is expected to clarify how South African law will apply to a high-profile documentary released in the streaming era.
