Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester and his lover Nandipha Magudumana will once again reunite in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Wednesday.
The state has mentioned that it is gearing up and ready to start with trial after the matter was postponed over a month ago.
Joining Bester and Magudumana in court will be 10 other suspects who are alleged to have assisted him escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre early in 2022.
Bester and Magudumana were apprehended by the Tanzanian authorities in Arusha on April 8 2023 after a year on the run, before being deported to South Africa a week later.
The suspects face charges of aiding Bester to escape from lawful custody, corruption, fraud, violation of a corpse, and arson.
They include former G4S prison warder Senohe Matsoara, suspended G4S employee Tieho Frans Makhotsa, suspended G4S employee Natassja Jansen, former G4S guard Buti Masukela, former camera technician at Integrated Solutions Teboho Lipholo, Zanda Moyo, and Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni.
Former G4S employees Joel Makhetha, Thabang Mier, and Moeketsi Ramolula were the last three suspects to be arrested in the matter.
In her last court appearance, celebrity medical doctor Magudumana was denied bail granted that she was a flight risk, an individual who knew how to cross the country’s borders even without a passport.
She previously told the court that she had not intended to escape from the country but was forced by Bester.
This after she initially abandoned bail to contest the legality of her deportation, which was dismissed by the court in July.
Magudumana faces charges of fraud and corruption, violating a corpse, habouring and concealing an escaped offender, and defeating the ends of justice.
Bester had, through his lawyer, demanded that the court grant back his assets and money which he claims were confiscated from him during the couple’s arrest in Tanzania.
However, the police assert that he only had a laptop and two cellphones in his possession at the time of the arrest, and that nothing else was confiscated from the couple.
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