Magudumana waits for court to rule on her fate

JOHANNESBURG - Disgraced doctor and accused fraudster Nandipha Magudumana will have to wait to learn her fate after her latest shot at freedom.

Magudumana's Supreme Court of Appeal application was heard this week, where her lawyers argued that her arrest in Tanzania was unlawful.

She was arrested in April last year after allegedly assisting her lover and accomplice convicted killer Thabo Bester to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre the year before, where he was serving a life sentence.

The duo and seven others, including Magudumana's father are being tried in the Bloemfontein High Court for the escape.

Acting on behalf of Magudumana, Advocate Anton Katz argued that South African officials wanted her to stand trial so badly that they colluded with Tanzanian authorities to carry out an unlawful arrest.

He said that Magudumana did not have her rights in terms of the Southern African Development Community agreement on extradition read to her before she was extradited.

But the State’s lawyers insist Magudumana gave consent to be brought back to South Africa which the high court also found in her initial application.

They insist she must prove that by bringing her back to South Africa, her liberty was deprived.

While Katz questioned the presence of South African police when Magudumana and Bester were captured in Tanzania, saying they acted unlawfully as they were on foreign ground, the State’s lawyers say the officers were not there to arrest Magudumana but Bester who had allegedly fled from custody.