Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Ruth Hopkins

Creator

Ruth Hopkins

The escape of a convicted criminal of Bester’s profile should serve as a wake-up call, urging us to address systemic weaknesses and demand accountability from those responsible for maintaining the safety and well-being of our communities. (Frikkie Kapp/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
G4S

G4S has a problematic history across Africa

Thabo Bester’s escape has highlighted problems at the security firm’s facilities on the continent where strikes, discontent and reports of maltreatment are rife

  • Ruth Hopkins
5 min read
Thabo Bester. Photo by Gallo Images/Frikkie Kapp
DR NANDIPHA MAGUDUMANA

Exclusive: Eyewitness accounts of Thabo Bester’s audacious prison escape

Sources have told the M&G who else can expect a knock on the door from the police over the events of May 2022

  • Ruth Hopkins
16 min read
Rikers Island is a huge prison complex on an island in East River – located between Queens and the Bronx. (Jewel Samad, AFP)
BRONX

Shutting Rikers would be a major step towards fixing the US’s racially skewed prisons

New York City’s jail has a long history of being a hotbed of inequality and abuse, which still lingers.

  • Ruth Hopkins
6 min read