Court judgment to determine if documentary on Bester, Magudumana will be aired

JOHANNESBURG - An early morning judgment in the Pretoria High Court is set to determine whether a documentary on Thabo Bester and his accomplice, Nandipha Magudamana, will be flighted on Friday.

The pair approached the court on an urgent basis on Thursday to temporarily interdict the release of the production.

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They want the documentary to only be released after the trial into Bester’s brazen escape from the Mangaung private prison.

Bester, who is a convicted rapist and murderer, was arrested with Magudumana while on the run in Tanzania in April 2023.

The judgment on Bester and Magudumana’s interdict application is set to be handed down at 8:30, just half an hour before the documentary is scheduled for release.

Bester’s lawyer, Advocate Moafrika Maila, has argued that the docu-series, titled Beauty and the Bester, has brought serious defamation against him.

“It means in the new future, we will have a situation that when kids are asked what do you know – they won’t say Beauty and the Beast, as we knew in the literature of English ourselves. They will say Beauty and the Bester, meaning the beast has been replaced by a certain individual. Now we have a beast in person and personified into the person of Thabo Bester.”

Magudumana, who was paid to provide archives for the production, has argued that parts of the agreement she signed with the production company are unlawful, making it unenforceable.

Netflix has asked for the application to be dismissed with costs.