'I was blindfolded and taken to the airport in Tanzania' — Dr Nandipha Magudumana in court papers

Dr Nandipha Magudumana says during her arrest in Tanzania she was forcefully abducted and blindfolded, before being taken to the airport. 

She made the claims in an application to the high court in Bloemfontein seeking to have her arrest and detention declared wrongful and unlawful. 

Magudumana was arrested in April in Tanzania with her boyfriend Thabo Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer who had escaped from prison. She has been in custody since. 

“Presently I'm illegally detained at the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre in Kroonstad by the fifth respondent,” Magudumana said in her papers. 

Magudumana is accused of having assisted Bester to escape from Mangaung correctional facility after he staged a “suicide” in his single cell in May last year. 

Her urgent application will be heard on Friday. 

In her court papers, she has cited the Free State director of public prosecutions, the minister of police, a Capt Tieho Flyman, the presiding magistrate for the criminal case and the head of the Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre as the respondents. 

Minister of home affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi on Monday stated his department wanted to join the proceedings as an interested party. 

He told a news conference Magudumana was not unlawfully “abducted” or “extradited” from Tanzania.

“Dr Nandipha Magudumana and Thabo Bester were declared prohibited immigrants in terms the immigration laws of Tanzania and were therefore, as a matter of law, liable to be deported back to their country of origin. The same procedure was followed in respect of the Mozambican national who was in their company,” Motsoaledi said.

In her affidavit, Magudumana argues Tanzania is a sovereign African country

“None of the respondents and more, in particular, the second respondents [police minister] (or its employees) have any jurisdiction or authority to arrest anyone there and/or the authority to remove South Africans (save where properly authorised by the authorities in Tanzania),” reads Magudumana's affidavit.

She also laid out events that followed her arrest. 

According to her account, she was blindfolded and taken to the airport in Tanzania by members of the SA Police Service where, on arrival, she was met by two other SAPS members. 

“They ordered me to get inside the aircraft where I found about four members of the SA Defence Force inside the aircraft. I then sat in the aircraft flanked by members of the second responders and the members of the defence force,” reads the papers. 

According to her affidavit, they flew to South Africa and landed at Lanseria airport. From there, travelled to the Bloemfontein magistrate's court, where she made her first court appearance. 

“The state must come to court with clean hands and such requirement is clearly not satisfied where the state is involved in the abduction of myself across the country's borders. As mentioned, the second respondent's servants [minister of police] had no jurisdiction and/or authority to arrest and/or bring me to South Africa and charge me as they did,” Magudumana argued. 

She also stated she never appeared before any court in Tanzania. 

“I can with certainty say that I have not been found by any court in Tanzania to be an illegal immigrant, nor have I been deported by such a court to South Africa,” reads the papers. 

Magudumana also argued police had no court order with them that warranted her transportation from Tanzania to South Africa and no warrant for her arrest was issued. 

“In any event, a warrant issued by a court in South Africa and that has to be executed in South Africa, would not assist any of the respondents. It is the arrest and removal in Tanzania, which according to my advice, flaws the whole process,” she said. 

Among other things, Magudumana wants the court to nullify and set aside the criminal proceedings before the Bloemfontein magistrate's court. She also wants the court to declare that she is entitled to be released from prison. 

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