Nandipha Magudumana along with five others appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court for their alleged role in the Thabo Bester escape saga. Magudumana’s defence told the court they would not continue with the bail application for her as there was missing information that was crucial for her defence. Her application was postponed to next week. Picture: Timothy Bernard African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Dr Nandipha Magudumana, the girlfriend of convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester, will have her day today at Free State High Court for her urgent application in which she wants her arrest in Tanzania and deportation to South Africa declared “unlawful”.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi this week said the department wanted to be a responded in the matter.
The Star has seen court papers filed by Magudumana, the director of public prosecution in Free State, who is listed as the first respondent, the police minister as the second respondent and Captain Flyman as the third respondent.
In the court paper, Magudumana said she was advised that the magistrate’s court had no authority to grant the orders that she sought herein, where she applied to the high court for the declaration.
“I can with certainty say that I never appeared in any court in Tanzania. I simply did not appear in any Tanzanian court. No orders were granted by any such court, and if they were, it is reasonable to assume that either the first, second, or third respondent would be in possession thereof. It is furthermore reasonable to accept that if any such documentation existed, ordering, for example, my extradition. My present attorney of record inquired whether such documentation exists but was not supplied with any. No such documentation was ever shown to me,” said Magudumana.
She added: “The matter is urgent; I am being detained illegally.”
Meanwhile, the decision on the bail application of the five accused and former G4S employees alleged to have aided and abetted Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022 was postponed to May 29.
Closing arguments continued yesterday as Magistrate Mohlolo Khabisi presided over the matter.
Khabisi is expected to make his final call on whether the arguments presented by the legal representatives for the five applicants in the matter were strong enough to convince him to grant their bail requests.
Lawyers for the accused have argued in the past two weeks that it was not in the interest of justice for them to be kept in prison as the case had yet to be completed and would require at least a month or two to conclude.
Senohe Matsoara, Teboho Lipholo, Matanyane Buti Masukela, Tieho Frans Makhotsa and Nastassja Jansen’s lawyers argued their cases during the closing arguments on Tuesday and yesterday, saying they should be released on bail for various reasons, including that they were not flight risks and would not interfere with witnesses.
Advocate Kagisho Moruri, who represents Matsoara and Makhotsa in the application, was the first to address the court. He argued that the State prosecutor, Sello Matlhoko, did not take into consideration some of the merits presented before the court through the statements and affidavits that were deposed by the accused before the start of the bail application proceedings over three weeks ago.
“It is my instruction that the merits of this matter should not be determined by this court. Furthermore, the affidavits by the first and fourth applicants clearly reflect that at the time they drafted their statements, they were not in possession of the completed court docket; therefore, they did not know what case to meet. Second, for this court to make a determination, it must take into account the entire evidence,” he said.
The State argued that the accused were not the primary carers of their children, as some of the children did not stay with them. However, Moruri argued that his clients were primary carers by virtue of being providers to the children.
“When one in fact looks at the act, the act says both parents are placed on equal footing. The primary residence of a child in no way takes away the primary care-giving role,” he said.
In his last-ditch effort, the lawyer for applicant five, Gary Botha, argued that his client was the primary care-giver of her children, even though she lived in a back room of her home with her mother, who is the grandparent of her children.
He added that his client had explained her situation regarding her need to take care of her children even without a job, adding that it was her intention to look for one in order to provide for them.
“Your worship, my submission is that her personal circumstances are before court. She has two children from two different men who pay for their maintenance. The children stay on the premises with the mother and father due to the fact that she was suspended from work,” Botha said.
The Star
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