What will happen if court grants Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s appeal to have arrest & extradition scrapped

If Dr Nandipha Magudumana is successful in getting her arrest and extradition to South Africa scrapped, it could see her removed from the list of suspects in the ongoing court case against Thabo Bester.

Magudumana’s legal counsel stated their case in the Free State High Court on Friday, hoping that the judge would rule in Magudumana’s favour.

Speaking to eNCA, law expert Elton Hart, said if the court now grants Magudumana leave to appeal the decision of the high court that said she gave consent and wanted to be brought back to South Africa and that consent was sufficient, the matter would go to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). If her SCA appeal succeeds, then there would be a part B to this application that will look at the actual law and come to a decision as to whether the consent given or alleged consent given was sufficient in terms of extradition law and international law standards.

“If the court finds that this was not enough, it would mean that she would be removed as an accused person (in the Bester case) but it will not stop the hearing of the other 11, including Thabo Bester, in the interim. It will have a bearing, but at a later stage, she can be added again as an accused person if they follow correct procedures to arrest her and bring her before court for cases she is alleged to have been involved in, as an accused person,” Hart explained.

Magudumana was arrested in Tanzania alongside Thabo Bester, a convicted rapist, and killer who had escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre.

They were apprehended near the Kenyan border in April of this year. Last month, Magudumana’s application to appeal was dismissed by the Bloemfontein High Court.

Justice Philip Loubser acknowledged that Magudumana’s deportation was an extradition that lacked proper process, but noted that she willingly participated in the process and expressed her desire to return to South Africa to be with her children.