Magudumana escalates her fight for freedom to ConCourt

JOHANNESBURG - Disgraced doctor Nandipha Magudumana has escalated her fight for freedom to the Constitutional Court.

This is where she is seeking to have the latest ruling against her overturned.

In May, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed her bid to have her arrest in Tanzania declared unlawful in a majority judgment in the State's favour.

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Magudumana was arrested in Tanzania with her lover and accomplice, Thabo Bester, who staged a brazen escape from the Mangaung prison, where he was serving a life sentence.

While the SCA ruled in the State’s favour against Magudumana’s bid to have her arrest in Tanzania declared unlawful, there was a dissenting view from Justice Tati Makgoka.

In his view, the handing over of Magudumana by Tanzanian authorities to South African home affairs officials was unlawful, with him arguing that there was no such procedure in international law.

He also agreed with Magudumana that this process was a disguised extradition, which was unlawful, as South African authorities had not taken the steps for an extradition.

This is the argument that Magudumana’s lawyers will make - that a disguised extradition violates the rule of law.

But first, they will have to apply for leave to appeal the SCA’s ruling in the Constitutional Court.