By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Dr Nandipha Magudumana isn’t giving up on her fight for freedom and she’s been given a lifeline by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
SCA is set to hear Magudumana’s appeal against the dismissal of her challenge of her arrest and extradition.
In June 2023, the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein dismissed her case but in October of the same year, the SCA agreed to hear her appeal.
She said that she was unlawfully extradited and wanted the court to order that she be released from custody and to rule that the Bloemfontein High Court (where she is facing several charges, including fraud, aiding an escape and violating dead bodies) does not have jurisdiction to try her.
She was arrested alongside escaped convict, Thabo Bester, in April on charges relating to aiding his escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May last year.
Magudumana’s legal team said in their arguments it was “clear” she was entitled to an order that her apprehension and transportation were wrongful and unlawful.
The SCA ruling follows a June High Court ruling by Judge Phillip Loubser, who dismissed her appeal for her arrest and extradition to be declared unlawful.
Loubser found that Magudumana had indeed been extradited without process, but that she had consented to board the chartered plane that brought her back to South Africa.
Meanwhile Magudumana, Bester, and other co-accused case has been postponed to 10 February 2025.
They face multiple charges, including fraud, corruption, violation of a corpse, defeating the ends of justice, arson, and assisting a prisoner to escape.