Nandipha Magudumana to learn fate of bail application

Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s, the girlfriend of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester will learn her fate on Monday, 11 September, on whether she will be granted bail.

Magistrate Estelle de Lange who is presiding over the matter is expected to deliver judgment in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on whether Magudumana will be granted bail or spend more time behind bars.

Last week, Magudumana’s lawyers told the court she could afford R10 000 bail.

Flight risk

They tried to convince the court that she was not a flight risk, has no interest in leaving the country or evading her trial and wants to be released on bail to look after her children.

“The applicant has been travelling in and outside South Africa, coming back with no issues whatsoever. The accused’s passport is confiscated. The real question is whether or not the accused has any other business to do or deal with outside the Republic of South Africa,” defence advocate Machini Motloung argued.

Motloung said Magudumana’s right to liberty would be compromised if she was not released on bail.

“There is no indication when the criminal trial would proceed. Until she is convicted of the crimes, she must be presumed innocent,” he said.

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Kidnapping

However, state prosecutor Sello Matlhoko argued against Magudumana being granted bail. He questioned why she hadn’t opened a criminal case against Bester when she claimed he kidnapped her.

Magudumana previously told the court that Bester had taken her to Tanzania against her will.

“The applicant is kidnapped by accused five. She says she resisted and was overpowered. Accused five took her away from her children, denying her parental responsibility she has over her two children.

“They do not reveal where they met, how they met, or how he kidnapped her, at all. Is it by gunpoint? Is it by knife? How was she kidnapped?… She is not taking the court into her confidence,” said Matlhoko.

He argued that Magudumana had not provided evidence to assure the court that should she be released on bail, she would not be a flight risk.

Bail

Magudumana previously reserved her right to bail in May 2023, pending the outcome of an application to have her arrest and extradition from Tanzania declared unlawful.

Bester and Magudumana were arrested in April, about 10km outside of Tanzania’s capital city, Arusha, after fleeing from the hotel they were staying in.

Bester, dubbed the Facebook Rapist, escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022. It had initially been believed that he had committed suicide by setting himself alight in his cell.

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