By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, reserved judgement in convicted murderer Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s bid to stop the airing of a Netflix documentary, Beauty and the Bester.
The three-part series is set to premiere on September 12, 09am South African time.
The limited series seeks to unpack the rise and dramatic fall of Dr Magudumana, a glamorous celebrity doctor whose entanglement with Bester, shocked the nation.
Once hailed as a successful businesswoman and social media influencer with a picture-perfect life, Dr. Magudumana carefully-curated image started unraveling when suspicions about her role in Bester’s elaborate prison escape and double life came to light.
The three-part series dives into the events that shook South Africa in late 2023, leading to the question that continues to baffle the public: how did one of South Africa’s most admired women land at the centre of one of the country’s biggest criminal scandals?
Bester and Dr Magudumana argue that the documentary contains defamatory information.
Advocate Moafrika Wa Maila, acting for Bester, said they have only seen the trailer, but what was portrayed in it, infringed his clients rights to a fair trial, to human dignity and to be presumed innocent until found guilty.
Mailia said the documentary is not about Bester’s life story, as claimed by Netflix. According to him it about the allegations that he had escaped from a maximum prison facility.
“There is not proof that he had escaped. He has not yet been convicted on this. There are many reasons why a person is no longer in prison, such as parole. The documentary is a kangaroo court,” Maila told the court.
He further argued that we all know what “Beauty and the Bester” stands for. “Bester is replacing the beast in the children’s story “Beauty and the Beast” – meaning my client will now be the beast. This is serious defamation,” Maila argued.
He pointed out that Bester and his co-accused are due back in the Bloemfontein High Court next Friday to face their criminal trial and if the screening went ahead, it would seriously prejudice him.
Advocate Lerato Moela, acting for Dr Magudumana said his client would suffer a trial by the public if the airing of the series went ahead. He pointed out that she has not even pleaded to the criminal charges against her and questioned that, in light of what is said in the series about her, she chose in court to exercise her right to remain silent.
He also complained about the fact that she has not been given the chance to give her side of the story to the producers of the documentary. But Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi, acting for Netflix, said they did ask her to contribute towards the series. At first she said she will make some comments, but she later declined, he said.
“Magudumana was given an opportunity to comment before the documentary was broadcast, but she chose not to exercise that right. That cannot now be turned into a justification to gag the documentary,” he told the court.
“This documentary gives the victims of Thabo Bester a platform to be heard after years of silence. To silence the film is to silence them again,” Ngcukaitobi said.
He added that the public deserves answers about how Bester staged one of South Africa’s most daring prison escapes.
“The public has a right to know how Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer, managed to stage one of the most elaborate prison breaks in South African history. It goes to the heart of accountability,” he argued.
Netflix also warned that any order to block the series would undermine media freedom.
“To prevent the media from reporting on facts that are already in the public domain is to undermine not only the rights of the media, but also the constitutional rights of South Africans to receive information, “Ngcukaitobi said.
Judge Sulet Potterill on Thursday reserved her judgment on the matter to early Friday, after enquiring from Netflix as to when exactly the series will be made available to viewers across the globe.