His mother's family rejected Bester and his siblings because their father was a black Xhosa-speaking man, rather than an Afrikaans-speaking “Coloured” person.
[4] In his late teens, Bester, like many townships and rural youth in similar situations joined the South African Defence Force.
[9] Bester has been noted as one of the strongest opponents to apartheid, creating much resistance art to garner protest from other South Africans.
The bed coils in front of a figure double as a jail cell, highlighting how Semezaki, like many others, were often apart from their families, supporting them with jobs they find in townships.
Within this same piece, he also includes the image of a bible physically connected with a replication of Semezaki's passbook, to highlight the irony of the National Party's claims of being run on Christian principles.
[11] Migrant workers like Semezaki were required to carry their passbook in order to work in a township until the Pass laws were repealed in 1986.
[4] Bester is noted for using oil paint for these portrait-like pieces, which has a long history in European portraiture, to restore human dignity to the Black and Coloured people he portrays.
As his work evolved, Bester moved away from addressing the impact of apartheid laws, to celebrating the indomitable spirit of the oppressed people he paints.
[4] He has received an Honorary medal for the promotion of Fine Arts from Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, as well as Order of Ikhamanga in Silver awarded by the South African government.
[10] In 2017, the University of Cape Town responded to artworks on display being defaced during student protests by taking them down or covering them on grounds of vulnerability to damage, including Bester's piece ‘’Sara Baartman’’.