Bester complains that his rights to a fair trial are being infringed.

The pre-trial for Thabo Bester, Nandipha Magudumana and seven co-accused was again unable to get underway at the Free State High Court on Wednesday.

Bester, serving a life sentence for two counts of rape and one count of murder, escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022, allegedly with the help of Magudumana and several officials from the prison, run by multinational security company G4S.

The accused face 16 charges between them, including fraud, corruption, assisting an inmate escape, and the violation of dead bodies.

The pre-trial was supposed to start in February but could not begin because too many of the accused had changed their legal representatives.

On Wednesday, Thabo Bester's legal representative, advocate Mohamed Seedat, also withdrew as Bester's attorney.

Advocate Kagisho Moruri, representing former G4S employee Senohe Matsoara, also said he was not "trial ready", as he still did not have financial instructions from his client. Moruri said he expected the matter to be sorted out within six weeks.

Seedat said he could not continue to travel "back and forth" between Bloemfontein and Pretoria, where Bester is being held.

"It is in his best interest to procure legal representation from Pretoria where such legal...