Magudumana is accused of aiding and abetting a convicted prisoner to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC).

Judge Phillip Loubser, on Tuesday (18/7), dismissed her plea for leave to appeal a previous judgment delivered by himself. This is now her second failed attempt to prove the SAPS and Home Affairs acted illegally.

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Magudumana wanted the legal principles regarding her arrest in Tanzania on April 2023, alongside her boyfriend Thabo Bester, to be deliberated at the Bloemfontein-based Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

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Her legal representatives argued that her arrest was a disguised extradition, with her advocate Kessler Perumalsamy questioning whether she gave her consent to be returned to South Africa. Her lawyers allege that the SAPS and the Department of Home Affairs gave two different versions of the events surrounding Magudumana’s arrest. It is alleged that an affidavit from the department says it was in charge of the Tanzanian operation and it executed arresting powers, while police insist Magudumana gave consent when she told officials that she wanted to come back to South Africa to be reunited with her children.

Magudumana was arrested in Tanzania alongside her boyfriend, convicted rapist Thabo Bester, after he had escaped from Mangaung Correctional Services on 3 May 2022. She was brought back to the country on 13 April, when she was transferred to Bloemfontein for her first court appearance that day same day.

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Magudumana is also facing charges of violating a dead body. It is alleged that she claimed the body of Katlego Bereng, who was used as a decoy in Bester’s escape. She has been in custody since her detention and earlier reserved her right to a bail application.

It is also alleged that Magudumana claimed the body of another man, whose identity has since been released by the Free State police. The body was found by police in Modder River, allegedly with a tag still intact, in April 2022, a few days before Bester’s escape.

ALSO READ: Police release identikit of another man whose body Nandipha claimed

So far, 12 people have been arrested for allegedly aiding Bester’s escape. Ten of the accused, including Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, have been granted bail of R10 000 each.

ALSO READ – Thabo Bester escape case: Twelfth suspect released on bail today

The suspects are set to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on 8 August.

OFM News