No medical complications have been reported after Nandipha Magudumana collapsed in the holding cells of Parkroad police station in Bloemfontein, Free State on Wednesday.
This is according to Free State police spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, who confirmed that Magudumana fainted before her court appearance.
The celebrity doctor’s ill-health briefly delayed the proceedings in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Wednesday morning.
“Emergency medical services were summoned to come and check the accused and nothing wrong with her health condition was picked up by the examiners,” said Makhele.
Later in the day, the Thabo Bester case was transferred to the high court in Bloemfontein for pre-trial proceedings scheduled to begin on February 21 2024.
This after a member of the defence team argued against the initial date, claiming that it was never discussed with them.
State prosecutor Amanda Bester said it was not her job to run after every attorney on the matter to discuss the next available date, as they are all required to visit the office of the director of public prosecutions for such a discussion.
“I went to them outside the court, the counsel was not prepared to go to our office to do that,” she said.
“I was informed that we can either do it next year or this year, then I was informed that next year. I didn’t see them again.
“Everyone else that I spoke to was satisfied. It is just a pity that the only thing now turning us back is one person.
“So, that was my arrangement with them, at that corner, [since] the counsel was not prepared to go to my office.”
Earlier during the proceedings, she announced that three accused in the case have been cleared off their charges.
Natassja Jansen, Thabang Mier and Moeketsi Ramalula faced charges of aiding an inmate escape from lawful custody and violation of a corpse, among others.
The accused, who were all out on bail before their court appearance on Wednesday, walked out of the first court session as free persons.
Jansen, who was in charge of controlling the gates at the Mangaung Correctional Centre, where Bester escaped in May 2022, argued previously that she was not aware that Bester was the one walking out of the premises disguised as a G4S employee.
Accused four, five, nine, Bester, Magudumana, and Zando Moyo were remanded in custody while the rest of the accused persons are out on bail.
Bester, Nandipha Magudumana and Moyo were nabbed in Arusha, Tanzania on April 8 2023 before being deported back to South Africa a week later.
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