By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Disgraced Dr Nandipha Magudumana has lost her bail appeal bid in the Bloemfotein High Court against the decision by the magistrate’s court to deny her bail.
Delivering her judgment, Acting Judge Melissa Jordaan dismissed Magudumana’s legal team’s version that Magistrate Estelle De Lange misdirected her judgment.
Magistrate de Lange said “no bail conditions will assist” in ensuring she attends trial and Magudumana had failed to “satisfy the court that the interests of justice permit her release on bail”.
Magudumana’s legal defence lawyer, Adv. Machini Motloung, approached the Free State High Court on Wednesday (1/11) to challenge the bail refusal by acting Magistrate de Lange.
Motloung argued that Magistrate De Lange misdirected herself and erred when she refused Magudumana bail. When refusing her bail in August this year, De Lange said Magudumana was a flight risk and nothing could potentially stop her from planning another Thabo Bester prison escape. Magudumana’s legal team supplied the High Court judge with at least 17 grounds as to why their client must be granted bail.
Magudumana is among nine suspects arrested for aiding Bester to escape. Nine suspects, including accused 1, Senohe Matsoara, are out on R10 000 bail. It is only Magudumana, Bester, and an illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe, Zando Moyo, who remain in custody.
Her lawyers, during her bail application at the Magistrate’s Court, accused the state of lying and contradicting itself on the affidavit of the state witness and the charge sheet.
Magudumana and Bester fled the country via Zimbabwe and were arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, en route to Kenya. They were brought back to the country in April 2023 where she appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court and was remanded in custody.
The high court ruling comes two weeks after the Supreme Court of Appeal decided it will hear Magudumana’s appeal against the judgment that found South African courts retain criminal jurisdiction over her.
If she succeeds in her appeal, it could mean she would escape a criminal trial in South Africa.
Watch in the video below:
Video Courtesy of SABC.