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| ©From left: Senohe Matsoara, Teboho Lipholo, Nandipha Magudumana, Motenyani Masukela, Tieho Makhotsa, and Nastassja Jansen. Photo: Becker Semela. |
Thabo Bester's partner Nandipha Magudumana and five other accused will remain in custody after their bail hearing was postponed to 11 and 12 May. Prosecutor Sello Matlhoko requested the postponement so that the state could prepare further, as two of the accused were only arrested last weekend.
Magudumana appeared in the dock on Wednesday alongside four former employees of Mangaung Correctional Centre, Senohe Matsoara, Motenyani Masukela, Tieho Makhotsa and Nastassja Jansen, and Teboho Lipholo, a CCTV technician and former employee of Integritron Security Services. Bester declined to apply for bail and remains in custody. The 16 counts on the charge sheet include violating a dead body, corruption, fraud, arson, and assisting an escape.
The state believes that Bester, Magudumana, Matsoara and Lipholo claimed an unidentified body from a morgue between 7 and 12 April 2022, saying that the body was that of Magudumana's The most important details in this text are that Bester, Magudumana, Matsoara, Sekeleni, Lipholo and Masukela are charged with fraudulently claiming a body from the National Hospital in Bloemfontein.
They are also charged with conspiring to start the fire in Bester’s prison cell, violating Katlego Bereng’s body by setting it alight in Bester’s cell, accepting a R105,000 payment for helping Bester escape, offering Makhotso R1,100 to help Bester escape. Magudumana is charged with “harbouring and concealing an escaped offender” in “Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Tania”.
All eight accused are charged with defeating the ends of justice, and with arson, for conspiring to start the fire in Bester’s prison cell. Matsoara is charged with corruption for accepting a R105,000 payment for helping Bester escape, and Magudumana is charged with “harbouring and concealing an escaped offender” in “Johannesburg,
