Dr Nandipha Magudumana to stay behind bars

Disgraced Dr Nandipha Magudumana was dealt another blow when the Bloemfontein High Court dismissed her appeal to be released on bail today.

The doctor and other suspects stand accused of helping her boyfriend, rapist and killer Thabo Bester, escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre, managed by G4S Security.

Magudumana faces several charges, including fraud, corruption, violating bodies and assisting an escape.

A few months ago, Magudumana filed an urgent application to have her arrest and deportation from Tanzania declared “unlawful” and set aside. She claimed that police abducted and subsequently deported her under a disguise.

However, the court dismissed it with costs, saying that she was a flight risk.

Magudumana and Bester were arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, after leaving South Africa; her passport was not stamped.

That was one of the reasons the court pronounced her a flight risk.

This order ensured that she remained at the Kroonstad women’s prison.

Acting Judge Melissa Jordan, delivering the judgment, said that the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court was correct in denying her bail.

Jordan found that Magudumana was the main roleplayer in the escape of Bester from the Mangaung Correctional facility.

She said Magudumana being arrested in another country without her passport being stamped makes her a flight risk.

Legal analyst Dikeledi Moeti said she believes that Magudumana can still go on to appeal to the SCA if she still believes she has to be released on bail.

“However, what the judge has stated today is that Magudumana does not have a proper address to where she would be found if she was to be released on bail based on the corruption cases she’s under. Also remember that she is a flight risk. In South Africa, you cannot release a flight risk, once you release a flight risk, you'll never find it,” said Moeti.

Last month, the Supreme Court of Appeal granted Magudumana leave to appeal against the High Court decision that dismissed her application to have her arrest and deportation declared unlawful.

Legal analyst Elton Hart said he thinks Magudumana going to the SCA court would not help her.

The Star

ntombi.nkosi@inl.co.za

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