Dr Nandipha Magudumana and her co-accused will return to the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, 10 May 2023, for what should be the first of a two-day bail hearing.
UPDATE: Dr Nandipha Magudumana was granted a postponement in her bail application due to new developments in her case. The disgraced doctor will appear alongside Thabo Bester and her father Zolile Sekeleni on Wednesday, 16 May 2023.
Watch live: Dr Nandipha bail hearing on Thursday, 10 May 2023
The disgraced celebrity doctor, accused of aiding and abetting Thabo Bester’s daring prison break, will rely on her new team of lawyers, former Legal Aid head Machini Motloung and Advocate Frans Dlamini, to convince the court that her conditional release would be in the interest of justice.
While her prospects of bail remain diminished, a sliver of hope still exists since, as confirmed by state prosecutors last week, Dr Nandipha no longer faces charges for the murder of Katlego Bereng, the decoy Bester and his accomplices used to pull off his escape from Mangaung Prison in May 2022.
“We expect quite an uphill battle tomorrow (Wednesday, 3 May 2023) for the bail applicant. One needs to remember that one of the charges is murder… and murder, under those circumstances, could possibly be regarded as murder pre-planned, which resorts this crime under a Schedule 6 offence,” legal expert Dr Inez Bezuidenhout said at the time.
Magudumana, Senohe Matsoara, Teboho Lipholo, Tieho Makhotsa and Nastassja Jansen will return to court on Thursday, 11 May 2023 and you can tune into live proceedings right here:
PLEASE NOTE: The content is shared on our platform for journalistic purposes. Swisher Post, its parent company, partners and affiliates shall not be held liable for any consequence that arises from the journalistic duties performed in sharing this content.
Katlego Mpholo murder: NPA clarifies why Dr Nandipha won’t be prosecuted
On Thursday, state prosecutors released a statement confirming rumours that had already been circulating about their decision to drop murder from Dr Nandipha’s charge sheet.
The NPA explained the decision was reached after investigators presented unsatisfactory findings on the persons identified as suspects in Mpholo’s death.
“At this early stage, prosecutors can only bring charges based on the evidence presented by investigators,” the public prosecutors’ office noted.
According to reports, Mpholo was specifically targeted as a decoy because he, to an extent, shared attributes with Bester. They were the same in height, weight class and stature, and it’s believed a concerted effort involving Dr Nandipha and others was made to plan and execute Mpholo’s murder.
The NPA revealed that already, a post-mortem examination performed on Mpholo’s charred remains determined he died an unnatural death.
“The cause of the unnatural death is still being investigated. At this stage, there is insufficient evidence for the NPA to pursue a charge of murder hence the NPA has taken a decision not to prefer a charge of murder pending further investigation,” the statement read.
In the event that more evidence surfaces, state prosecutors stressed, decisive action will be taken against identified suspects. At this juncture, however, there isn’t any confidence that Mpholo’s death can be tied to Dr Nandipha.