Simphiwe Ngema on Thabo Bester: ‘Stop vilifying the victims’
Ngema as well as businesswoman Shaun ‘MaMkhize’ Mkhize were accused of being ‘accomplices’ to criminal allegations over the weekend.
Stop using Thabo Bester’s victims as a tool for distraction, Simphiwe Ngema pleaded in a now deleted Instagram post. Picture credit: @simzngema Instagram
JOHANNESBURG – In the wake of unfounded allegations linking her to convicted criminal Thabo Bester, actress and media personality Simphiwe Ngema has broken her silence.
Ngema, as well as businesswoman Shaun “MaMkhize” Mkhize, were accused of being “accomplices” to criminal allegations regarding their involvement with Bester over the weekend.
According to Thabo Bester’s visitors RECORDED list, a female celebrity who used to visit him in Prison is former Muvhango actress Simphiwe Ngema. An unknown person named Thomas Gumede visited Thabo more than anyone. Not the actor though. MaMkhize’s doesn’t appear on recorded list pic.twitter.com/LqRPuVjNXH
‘ Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) April 30, 2023
Investigations by journalist Karyn Maughan confirmed that MaMkhize was not associated with Bester.
Shauwn Mkhize aka Mamkhize Is Accused Of Allegedly Visiting Thabo Bester In Jail before he walked out. pic.twitter.com/8hGt9ued3N
‘ Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) April 30, 2023
Just to clarify: The prison records provided by @G4S do not list Shauwn Mkhize as having visited Thabo Bester in prison. She was not one of the celebrities that we know visited him.
I’m not sure where her name entered into this story.
I certainly did not name her. https://t.co/uw7MYJ9yoW‘ Karyn Maughan (@karynmaughan) April 30, 2023
While incarcerated at Mangaung Correctional Centre, Bester ran a glamourous media company, GroundUp previously reported. The company was falsely represented as a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, and was behind the “Women in Media” conference, which proved to be fraudulent.
Pictures and video footage emerged of 21st Century Media’s launch in 2018, held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton. Among the guests were Mzwanele Manyi, Ngema, Amanda Du Pont, and Yvonne Chaka Chaka, all members of Johannesburg’s high society.
Thabo Bester appears at a glamorous Johannesburg event on 13 June 2018 via video conference, while he was in prison. Picture: Supplied to GroundUp
She posted a statement on her Instagram, which she later deleted.
It read: “Stop using his Victims as a tool for distraction. Someone needs to make those records public. So many innocent people are getting hurt from all of this. My family can’t be dealing with this again. After 5 years.”
In her statement, Ngema confirmed that she did visit Bester in prison in 2018 to demand answers after she was not paid for events she was booked for by Bester’s company, 21st Century.
“In 2018 I went to the prison to demand answers, it was a difficult time in my life and he owed me money. I’ve been extremely open about everything to those that have been investigating and I have nothing to hide. I am not the person that went there on a regular basis nor was I the last person to visit before his escape,” said Ngema.
Ngema’s now deleted Instagram post. Picture: Instagram
For all the latest lifestyle News Click Here