Bester and Magudumana’s bid to stop Showmax doccie ‘Tracking Thabo Bester’ fails

The Johannesburg High Court has dismissed Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana’s application to interdict the broadcast of Showmax’s Tracking Thabo Bester documentary.

This means the documentary will be available on the streaming platform at 4pm on Friday afternoon.

The battle to stop the docu-series about Bester on Showmax was heard in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, with Judge Stuart Wilson presiding over the matter.

Watch Judge Stuart Wilson delivering his judgment:

[BREAKING NEWS] Judge Stuart Wilson dismisses #ThaboBester and #NandiphaMagudumana’s urgent application to interdict Showmax documentary 'Tracking Thabo Bester' from airing.#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/KVmpL7cT53

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) March 15, 2024

Bester, dubbed “the Facebook rapist”, and his girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana each approached the high court to stop the documentary from airing.

ALSO READ: Bester ‘aggrieved’ for not profiting from Showmax’s doccie, says Multichoice

Judgment on Bester and Magudumana documentary

Wilson said Bester and Magudumana had shown no legal basis for their application.

He said Bester and Magudumana’s papers showed a “generalised anxiety” about the Showmax documentary and they failed to prove that they would suffer real prejudice if the documentary aired.

“As a result, their bids to interdict the documentary broadcast must fail.”

Wilson ruled that for an interdict blocking the broadcast of a programme to be granted, it needed to be shown that the broadcast will result in real trial prejudice and that this damage cannot be speculative.

The judge declined to order costs against Bester and Magudumana in the case, after pointing out that “they were both inmates”.

“Whatever the applicants have done, and whatever appropriately be said about their conduct and character, and in this a great deal may be said, the doors of the court are open to everyone and I will not depart from that principle from this case or risk departing from it by making an adverse court order.

“For all of those reasons I make the following order: the applications are dismissed and each party will pay their own costs,” Wilson ruled.

‘Tracking Thabo Bester’

MultiChoice said it is delighted that the Johannesburg High Court has upheld the public’s right to watch the Tracking Thabo Bester documentary.

“The fascinating documentary will shed light on the allegations against Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana and allow the public the opportunity to make up their own minds and opinions about what took place,” Multichoice said.

ALSO READ: Bester ‘aggrieved’ for not profiting from Showmax’s doccie, says Multichoice