Dr Nandipha Magudmana in court
|Published
Thabo Bester’s partner and accomplice, Dr Nandipha Magudumana appeared briefly in the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on Thursday. Picture: Timothy Bernard African News Agency
Facebook rapist Thabo Bester's partner and accomplice, Dr Nandipha Magudmana, made a brief appearance at the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Magudumana took the stand with her face still covered.
She appeared alongside her co-accused, Integritron CCTV technician Tebogo James Lipholo.
It is alleged that Lipholo, 44, tampered with the CCTV cameras on the night that Bester made his audacious Bloemfontein prison escape in May last year.
Integritron was contracted by G4S to maintain the CCTV cameras at the privately managed Mangaung Correctional Centre.
Parliament heard on Wednesday how the CCTV cameras stopped working between 9pm until 4am on the night Bester escaped, during a parliament portfolio committee meeting, reported IOL.
This was Maguduma's first appearance since she landed in South Africa early yesterday morning from Tanzania along with Bester amid heavy police presence.
She is being charged with corruption, assisting a prisoner to escape, harbouring an escaped convict, defeating the ends of justice, violation of a dead body, and fraud.
Magistrate Motlholo Khabisi adjourned the proceedings and remanded the case until next week Monday, 17 April, for Magudumana and her co-accused's bail application.
He also told Lipholo that he could apply for legal aid.
Meanwhile, Bester remains detained at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria
Bester and Magudumana were tracked and nabbed in Tanzania last week after he staged his own fiery “death” in his cell at the Mangaung Correctional Centre.
Bester was convicted for luring young women, raping them and robbing them, after promising them lucrative modelling jobs via Facebook.