Dr Nandipha Magudumana is challenging her arrest, demanding the court to declare her arrest in Tanzania as unlawful and wrongful. She was arrested alongside her boyfriend who she is accused of assisting to escape prison.

Magudumana has filed urgent court papers in the Bloemfontein High Court seeking to declare her arrest, “abduction” and deportation last month in Tanzania “wrongful and unlawful”.

The matter is expected to be heard on Thursday.

Magudumana’s legal team has not yet disclosed the grounds on which they will be arguing for her release from prison. However, in a notice to court, she wants “to declare the arraignment before the current magistrate [Mohlolo Khabisi] in the criminal case nullified and set aside.”

Magudumana faces multiple charges including fraud, defeating the ends of justice, and assisting an inmate to escape from prison in connection with Bester’s daring escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year.