Disgraced South African medical professional Nandipha Magudumana has suffered another legal setback, after the Bloemfontein High Court upheld a judgment that said she is a flight risk and therefore not eligible for bail, meaning she has no prospects of being released from prison before the end of the year.
Magudumana is facing multiple charges of fraud, violating a body, corruption, arson, assisting an inmate to escape, harbouring and concealing an escaped prisoner, and defeating the ends of justice.
Pre-trial conference in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein, is set to start on February 21.
In September, Magistrate Estelle de Lange said “no bail conditions will assist” in ensuring she attends trial and also contended that Magudumana had the “necessary means” and “know-how to leave the country”.
She is said to have played a central role in the escape of Thabo Bester, with whom she was arrested in Tanzania earlier this year.
According to the SABC, Magudumana’s lawyer Machini Motloung had argued that the Magistrate erred in finding that when she left the country, she knew that she would not return.
However, this argument was dismissed by Acting Judge Melissa Jordaan, who said that the evidence brought forward by the state was convincing enough to prove that Magudumana is a flight risk.