By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court is set to deliver its ruling on the bail application of disgraced Dr Nandipha Magudumana in a week’s time.
Magudumana appeared in court on Monday for closing arguments in her bid to be granted bail.
The court heard on Monday how Magudumana had contradicted herself in her bail application, claiming she was kidnapped out of the country, but she had also approached the Free State High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court of Appeal to question how she was deported from Tanzania back into South Africa.
Her bail application required a third sitting on Monday after it sat for two days last week, but more time was required, as both the State and the defence had yet to complete their submissions before court.
Magudumana’s lawyer, Advocate Machini Motloung, made it clear that she has no interest in leaving the country.
“The applicant has been travelling in and outside South Africa, coming back with no issues whatsoever. The accused’s passport is confiscated. The real question is whether or not the accused has any other business to do or deal with outside the Republic of South Africa.
“To this end, the applicant has not produced such evidence, neither did the state in its opposition produce evidence that the applicant has some interest outside the borders of the Republic of South Africa,” said Motloung.
Motloung said the applicant has strong family ties in the country.
Earlier, the State questioned why Magudumana hadn’t opened a criminal case against the convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.
“The applicant is kidnapped by accused five. She says she resisted and was overpowered. Accused five took her away from her children, denying her parental responsibility that she says has over the two children.
“Now she finds herself arrested and applying for bail as a result of her actions of accused number five, and, your worship, you choose not to open a criminal case against this person?” prosecutor Sello Matlhoko told the court.
“So far, this is what accused five did to her, and she does not open a case. The investigating officers say the reservation we have with the picture that is attached, she has been coming to court smiling with the same person that she says in her affidavit kidnapped her.”
The National Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has confirmed that Magudumana faces a serious, Schedule 5 criminal offence.
This after her lawyers on a number of occasions disputed that Magudumana is facing a Schedule 5 offence, instead claiming she is facing a Schedule 1 offence.
Adv. Motloung on Monday stated that the confirmatory notice by DPP further brings confusion to the matter. Adv. Motloung said the state’s affidavit and charge contradict each other. The defence lawyers argue that the amount involved in the matter, which is alleged that it was paid to another accused by Magudumana, is being misrepresented. Motloung said it was in the best interest of justice to release Magudumana on bail. He largely dealt with section 60 subsection 4, which deals with the bail system.
Meanwhile, the state has reiterated the suspect faces a Schedule 5 offence and evidence has been led to that effect. Matlhoko said Magudumana has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she deserves to be released on bail. Matlhoko said she even failed to take the court into her confidence about how her boyfriend and suspect in the matter Bester kidnapped her out of the country to Tanzania.
In his affidavit, a state witness said that Magudumana fetched Bester from KwaZulu-Natal after he made a daring escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre.
She and Bester rented a place where they made renovations and also had security personnel. Later on, Magudumana and Bester fled the country via Zimbabwe and were arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, in transit to Kenya. They were then brought back to the country in April 2023 where she appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court and was remanded in custody.
Bester was then transferred to the Kgosi Mampuru Maximum Centre in Pretoria.
Magudumana is among 12 suspects arrested for aiding Bester to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022.
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.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of SABC.