Delay: Thabo Bester prison break trial
The case against convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester and his co-accused has been postponed to July.
The trial was supposed to start on Monday but was postponed because two matters were still outstanding in the case.
"The matter was postponed to 21 July 2025 as there are still two matters that are still outstanding. The first is that of Magudumana's judgement, in the SCA, and the Thabo Bester in the HC, where we still need to argue on his application(you remember he wants a laptop, certain food and clothes)", said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mojafela Senokotsoane.
In November, the SCA heard an application by fellow accused and Bester's girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana to have her extradition to South Africa declared illegal.
Magudumana's legal team appeared before the court to argue for her immediate release from custody and to declare the charges against her null and void.
In written arguments, they described her arrest in Tanzania in April 2023 (along with Bester) as harsh and her “forced return” to South Africa unlawful and invalid.
Magudumana was arrested after Bester’s brazen escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022.
Her legal representative, Advocate Anton Katz previously questioned the presence of South African officials during the arrest of Magudumana in Tanzania.
He told the court that Magudumana did not agree to be extradited.
"On the same day, a notice of prohibition was signed, and she says it's not contested, that she saw it for the first time, that she saw the prohibited immigrants' notice for the first time when it was filed as part of the papers in this case. There's no suggestion that it was given to her, that she saw it, that she knew her rights. There's none of those issues."
Judgement was reserved.
Two months before Magudumana's application to the SCA, Bester also had his laptop application struck from the roll by the Pretoria High Court.
Bester told the court he needed the laptop to prepare for an upcoming deportation case.
The court, however, ruled he may have access to physical resources but not electronic equipment.
State Prosecutor Advocate, Mosioa Mazibuko, argued that Bester's application was an abuse of court processes.
“The urgency, within my respectful submissions, is clearly self-created based on the fact that the applicant, on his own version, waited until the notice to oppose was filed before launching this application.
“You will not see anywhere in the applicant’s papers where he says before I filed the main application, ‘I made a request for a laptop and modem’. He only made a request on the 6th of August 2024 after he had already filed another application in the Free State High Court pertaining to this issue.
“The consequence where urgency is self-created is that the matter should not be accepted on the court’s urgent roll. Self-created urgency is an abuse of the court process,” added Mazibuko.
Senokotsoane said the state is ready to proceed with the trial.
"The defense has indicated that it will only be ready after the two judgments."
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