Thabo Bester’s mother, Maria Mabaso, recently admitted that she didn’t spend much time with her son while he was growing up. Thabo Bester is also referred to as the “Facebook rapist” and is the most sought criminal in South Africa.

Mabaso claimed in an interview with South Africa’s Eye Witness News that she had to leave her son in the care of his grandmother when he was just a year old since she was a single parent who worked nonstop.

Over time, this caused the bond between Mabaso and her mother to deteriorate.

“He was entrusted into the care of his grandmother at the age of one due to her being a single parent and having to constantly work,” Ms Mabaso told South Africa’s Eye Witness News.

She said this resulted in the relationship between her and her mother worsening over the years.

“At the end of the day, my mother shouted at me every day. She pushed me away. When she pushed me away, I said ‘No, I will sit by my place and I am not going there ever again,” she was quoted as saying.

Ms. Mabaso disclosed that the mother’s illness and subsequent death occurred when the son was in his teen years, at which point she made fruitless attempts to move and establish contact with her son.

Speaking to reporters about the arrest of the couple, who have been on the run since it was discovered that Mr. Bester had escaped from a privately run prison in Bloemfontein in March 2023, Mr. Cele said they had also been detained along with a Mozambican man named Mr. Zakaria Alberto.

“They were arrested with multiple passports in their possession. None of the passports were stamped,” he said in the press conference.

Mr Bester was found with documents that identified him as Mr Tommy William Kelly, an American citizen while Dr Magudumana had documentation that identified her as Martha Patience Mmerika Nitshini.

The passports, according to the South African government, which had received details from Tanzania, where the trio was nabbed, also showed that Mr Bester had more pseudonyms, further adding to the case’s complexity.

ACCRA- NBA Africa today hosted the first all-girls Jr. NBA clinic in Ghana, which was held at Trust Sports Emporium in Accra in conjunction with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff’s first visit to the country this week.

The event featured a basketball clinic for 60 girls aged 18 and younger and a life skills seminar led by 2003 WNBA champion Astou Ndiaye and attended by Second Gentleman Emhoff, Ghana’s Minister of Youth and Sports Hon. Mustapha Ussif, Ghana Basketball Association President Ato Van-Ess, NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams, NBA Africa Head of Basketball Operations Franck Traore, and Basketball Africa League Head of Strategy and Operations John Manyo-Plange.

“We are thrilled to be back in Accra to host the first all-girls Jr. NBA clinic in Ghana as part of NBA Africa’s broader efforts to make the game of basketball more accessible across the continent,” said Williams. “We are thankful to Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Ghana’s Minister of Youth and Sports Hon. Mustapha Ussif for their support and look forward to bringing more events to Ghana in the near future.”

The event builds on NBA Africa’s previous basketball camps and clinics in Ghana, which have featured appearances by current and former NBA players including former NBA player and Olympian Pops Mensah-Bonsu (Ghana/UK), two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh, two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng (South Sudan), Gorgui Dieng (San Antonio Spurs; Senegal) and 2019 NBA champion Serge Ibaka (most recently with the Milwaukee Bucks; Republic of the Congo).

The Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls, teaches the fundamental skills as well as the core values of the game – teamwork, respect, determination and community – at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents. Jr. NBA programming has directly reached tens of thousands of youth in 16 African countries.

Three people were taken into custody after a Modern Coast bus carrying counterfeit money was stopped by customs authorities at the Busia border crossing on Friday.

The Ugandan Revenue Authority (URA) stated in a statement that Sh1.3 million in local money was recovered from the bus.

“Customs officials from Uganda Revenue Authority have seized counterfeit money which was being smuggled into the country via a modern coast bus. The Ugandan currency notes had been stashed in a conspicuous package that had been declared but later manually crossed checked,” URA said in a statement.

The authority claims that the officers who opened the package were suspicious because the money had been proclaimed without first being physically crossed checked. The officials then discovered an envelope meticulously hidden inside which contained 10,000 and 500 Ugandan currency notes.

Initially, it was intended to hold the company accountable for failing to disclose the money, but after further investigation, it became clear that the money was fake.

In accordance with Ugandan legislation, counterfeit money carries a prison sentence in addition to a fine equal to 50% of the value of the item.

The East African Community Customs Act of 2004’s Section 199, on the other hand, imposes a fee of no more than Sh500,000 on such modes of transportation.

URA stated that it continues to take action against those who would sabotage the economy by inducing fictitious inflation.