©Ditiro Selepe
Dr Nandipha Magudumana is seeking to have her arrest and detention declared wrongful and unlawful. She was arrested in April in Tanzania with her boyfriend, Thabo Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer who had escaped prison. Magudumana is accused of assisting Bester in escape from Mangaung correctional facility after he staged a “suicide” in his single cell last May. She has cited the Free State director of public prosecutions, the minister of police, Capt Tieho Flyman, the presiding magistrate for the criminal case and the head of the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre as the respondents. Minister of home affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi on Monday stated his department wanted to join the proceedings as an interested party.
Magudumana argues Tanzania is a sovereign African country, and none of the respondents has any jurisdiction or authority to arrest anyone there and the power to remove South Africans. She also laid out events that followed her arrest. Magudumana was taken to the airport in Tanzania by members of the SA Police Service and two other SAPS members. On arrival, she was met by four members of the SA Defence Force. They flew to South Africa and landed at Lanseria airport.
Magudumana made her first court appearance at the Bloemfontein magistrate's court, where she argued that the state had no jurisdiction and authority to arrest and bring her to South Africa and charge her as they did. Magudumana also claimed that police had no court order with them that warranted her transportation from Tanzania to South Africa, and no warrant for her arrest was issued. Magudumana wants the court to nullify and set aside the criminal proceedings before the Bloemfontein magistrate's court and declare that she is entitled to be released from prison.
This article is originally published by timeslive.co.za
