By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Celebrity doctor Dr Nandipha Magudumana has launched an urgent application to declare her “arrest and abduction” unlawful.
Magudumana has filed urgent court papers in the Bloemfontein High Court seeking to declare her arrest, “abduction” and deportation last month in Tanzania “wrongful and unlawful”.
The matter is expected to be heard on Thursday.
Magudumana’s legal team has not disclosed the grounds on which they will be arguing for her release from prison. However, in a notice to court, she wants “to declare the arraignment before the current magistrate [Mohlolo Khabisi] in the criminal case nullified and set aside.”
She was arrested in Tanzania in the company of convicter murderer and rapist Thabo Bester and a Mozambique national while the so-called Facebook rapist was on the run from South African law enforcement agencies.
She allegedly claimed the body of Katlego Bereng, who was used as a decoy in cell 35 for Bester to escape. His body was allegedly burned by accused 1, Senohe Matsoara, to fake Bester’s suicide.
During subsequent investigations it was found that Bester had escaped and lived in the lap of luxury in Johannesburg.
She faces multiple charges including fraud, defeating the ends of justice, and assisting an inmate to escape from prison in connection with Bester’s daring escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year.
Her co-accused, including Bester, are her father Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, former G4S employees Senohe Matsoara, Buti (Motenyane John) Masukela, Tieho Frans Makhotsa and Nastassja Jansen as well as Integriton CCTV technician, Teboho James Lipholo.
Magudumana abandoned her bail application last week. Her matter was postponed to June 20.