Johannesburg - The humiliated Dr Nandipha Magudumana will spend her birthday and more days in custody after the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court yesterday postponed her bail application to next week, September 11.
Magistrate Estelle de Lange listened attentively as the defence and State made their closing arguments.
She also asked for clarity on additional charges the State is levelling against Magudumana.
Magudumana’s lawyer, advocate Machini Motloung, said it was an important day for her as it was her birthday.
Journalists managed to ask Magudumana if she was enjoying her birthday as she turned 35 yesterday, and in a shy tone, she said no by nodding her head. She sat in the dock most of the time facing down.
Her family members, including her criminally charged father, Zolile Sekeleni, who is out on R10 000 bail for this case, and her sister and brother were in court; they were carrying a birthday cake.
Arriving at court with shackles around her feet, Magudumana was seen sporting a fresh straight-back hairstyle, her face radiant with light make-up and red lipstick, and wearing a mauve Nike T-shirt and Nike sneakers.
Her legal team argued most of the day, motivating the court to grant her bail, but the State was having none of it. It argued that she is a flight risk as she escaped the country in April this year with her lover, rapist and killer Thabo Bester.
Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Facility, managed by G4S private security company, in May last year.
Through her lawyers, Magudumana alleged in her affidavit that she was kidnapped by Bester to leave the country. She claims that on March 17, 2023, the convict forced her into a car, and she had no idea where she was going.
She said she was scared and helpless. The pair were arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, and subsequently deported back to South Africa.
She has been kept at the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Services prison in Kroonstad, while Bester is incarcerated at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility in Pretoria.
The Star