High Court dismisses Nandipha Magudumana’s bail bid

Dr Nandipha Magudumana, the girlfriend of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester has been dealt a blow after her bail appeal bid was dismissed.

Magudumana appeared in the Bloemfontein High Court on Tuesday.

This comes after Magudumana’s lawyers challenged the outcome of the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court, which denied her bail in September saying the judgment contained errors.

Acting Judge, Melissa Jordaan, said she did not find “any error” in Magistrate Estelle de Lange’s decision to deny Magudumana bail in September and that it was the correct decision to take.

According to the SABC, her lawyers again argued there was no evidence of corruption or that she was a flight risk.

ALSO READ: ‘Flight risk’ Nandipha Magudumana denied bail

Bail denied

In September, De Lange, who presided over the bail application matter, said the onus was on Magudumana to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that it is in the interest of justice for her to be released on bail.

De Lange said no bail condition would guarantee that Magudumana will stand trial as she was previously able to leave South Africa and cross three borders without a passport.

“I find that the applicant is a definite flight risk and that no bail condition will assist under the circumstances to limit this risk. After weighing up the personal circumstances and the interests of the applicant and her constitutional right in the interests of justice, I find, that she did not satisfy the court that it is in the interests of justice for her to be released on bail.”

Magudumana previously reserved her right to bail, pending the outcome of an application to have her arrest and extradition from Tanzania declared unlawful.

Bester escape

Bester and Magudumana were arrested in April, about 10km out of Arusha, Tanzania, after fleeing the hotel they were staying in.

Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022. It was initially believed he had committed suicide by setting himself alight in his cell.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Nandipha collapses before court appearance with Bester