Making its platform premiere on September 12, 2025, the stunning Netflix docuseries Magnificence and the Bester is as unsettling as true-crime tales get. The three-part documentary chronicles the brazen criminality of Thabo Bester, a convicted South African rapist and assassin who escaped jail by faking his personal loss of life, doing so with the assistance of celeb surgeon Nandipha Magudumana, after they started a romantic affair.
As soon as Bester and Magudumana went on the run, they have been likened to real-life infamous outlaws, resembling Bonnie and Clyde. This actually jaw-dropping story of lethal deceit, prison complicity, a damaged justice system, and the function of celeb tradition of their arrest makes it laborious for true-crime followers to discover a extra riveting and unbelievable story this week, month, and even 12 months.
‘Magnificence and the Bester’s Beautiful Premise
Directed with tempo and authenticity by Anthony Molyneaux, Magnificence and the Bester is a true-crime Netflix documentary that takes viewers to Mangaung, a most safety jail in South Africa. Inside a cell sits Thabo Bester, aka the “Fb rapist,” a infamous prison who posed as a mannequin’s agent to lure harmless girls on-line. For his crimes, Bester was convicted on two counts of rape and one depend of homicide in 2012.
In 2022, the authorities at Mangaung declared Bester useless after apparently burning himself alive in his cell at 3:00 AM on Might 3. The primary suicide by fireplace within the jail’s historical past, little or no made sense in regards to the loss of life. As soon as Bester’s physique was examined, it was decided that the sufferer died from blunt pressure trauma lengthy earlier than the fireplace. Following a murder investigation, the corpse discovered within the cell was not Bester.
Three days after the jail fireplace, Nandipha Magudumana arrived on the morgue to assert Bester’s physique. A beauty influencer and TV celeb physician, Magudumana had been visiting Bester in jail since 2017. Regardless of serving two consecutive life sentences for rape and one for homicide, Magudumana started a romantic affair with Bester 5 years earlier than he faked his loss of life, and he or she helped his escape from jail.
The investigation proved that Bester had faked his personal demise earlier than escaping jail with the assistance of Nandipha. Extra stunning but, Nandipha was married on the time (albeit separated) and had two kids, risking her household to assist and abet a serial rapist and assassin. The staggering documentary poses the central query of who Nandipha was deep down and why she would assist such a vile perpetrator.
As soon as Nandipha helped Thabo escape jail in Might 2022, the 2 went on the run from the legislation for practically one 12 months. Whereas on the lam, the pair drove a automotive from Mangaung Jail in Bloemfontein to Tanzania, protecting greater than 2,300 miles with out being caught. Their romantic exploits on the highway whereas committing violent crimes drew parallels between Thabo and Nandipha and Bonnie and Clyde Barrow, infamous married financial institution robbers who gained celeb standing within the Thirties.
Because the media started fueling the favored obsession with the 2 lovers on the run, it grew to become considerably complicit in romanticizing the criminals. In fictional film phrases, the phenomenon that started with Bonnie and Clyde and continued by Pure Born Killers raises critical questions on how the media helped glamorize and glorify Thabo and Nandipha relatively than vilify and demonize their heinous acts. Certainly, if the faked loss of life and daring jail escape have been stunning, so too is the depiction of the media’s therapy of Thabo and Nandipha’s relationship.
Whereas there is no dearth of unbelievable, deeply unsettling true-crime tales on the market in 2025, Magnificence and the Bester builds on the again of the 2024 Showmax true-crime miniseries movie Monitoring Thabo Bester. Take warning, there’s nothing remotely nice about both of those disturbing docs, and they’re positive to be among the many most unshakable real-life crime tales in latest reminiscence. Thankfully, the story does have a considerably blissful ending.
The place Are Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana Now?
Regardless of Thabo dwelling in Johannesburg below a number of aliases for practically one 12 months, his travels to Tanzania with Nandipha led to their official arrest. Earlier than their seize, Thabo and Nandipha have been allegedly having fun with a lifetime of luxurious, bilking giant sums of cash to fund their crime spree by defrauding a number of non-public and native companies. Regardless of their well-funded efforts to stay hidden in plain sight, Thabo and Nandipha have been in the end dropped at justice.
Roughly one 12 months after happening the run from the police in Might 2022, Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana have been arrested on April 7, 2023. As soon as apprehended by the authorities in Arusha, Tanzania, Thabo and Nandipha have been extradited to South Africa on April 13.
Following their arrest, Thabo Bester was ordered to serve his unique life sentence for his rape and homicide fees. Nevertheless, he was not returned to Mangaung, the jail he escaped. As an alternative, Bester was imprisoned in C-Max, the maximum-security wing of Kgosi Mampuru jail in Pretoria, South Africa. Along with his unique life sentence, Thabo was charged with extra crimes for his jail escape.
Because the docuseries notes, Bester tried a number of instances to acquire a laptop computer laptop in his jail cell following his arrest. Bester additionally tried to dam Netflix from releasing Magnificence and the Bester. The implication is that Bester will not be compunctious in any respect and could also be plotting additional crimes sooner or later.
As for Nandipha Magudumana, she was positioned within the all-female jail, Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre, in Kroonstad, Free State, South Africa. Nandipha faces a number of authorized fees with a number of crimes regarding Thabo’s escape, together with defiling a corpse, fraud, obstructing justice, and extra. Nandipha’s father has additionally been arrested for aiding and abetting Thabo’s jail escape. Nevertheless, as of September 2025, her trial has been delayed, and he or she continues to be awaiting sentencing.
In a basic case of actual life being stranger than fiction, Magnificence and the Bester is a deeply unsettling true-crime story whose jaw-dropping shock worth might be laborious to high on the platform anytime quickly. Magnificence and the Bester is obtainable to stream on Netflix.
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2025 – 2025-00-00
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Netflix