Dr Nandipha Magudumana wept as her lawyer read out her affidavit as part of her bail plea in Mangaung magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
Magudumana claimed she did not go on the run with escaped rapist and murderer Thabo Bester on purpose. She said Bester compelled her to get into a car and escape the country with him, and she claimed his threats against her drove her to obey.
The prosecution, on the other hand, poured cold water on her assertions by explaining her apparently passionate relationship with Bester and their history together.
The investigating officer provided the following timeline outlining their relationship and alleged collaborations around the escape:
| 2006 | Magudumana and Bester meet for the first time. Bester was allegedly studying theology at Wits University while she was studying medicine. |
| May 2017 | Magudumana and Bester started dating while he was in jail for rape and murder. |
| February 2020 | Bester proposed marriage to Magudumana. |
| December 2020 | Lobola negotiations took place when Bester’s uncle allegedly met with Magudumana’s father to discuss lobola. The sum of R60,000 was decided. |
| March 24 to 30 2022 | “TK Nkwana” one of the aliases used by Bester, booked Magudumana into a boutique hotel in Bloemfontein. |
| 7 April 7 2022 | Magudumana collected an unidentified body at the state mortuary in Bloemfontein, saying the deceased person was her father. |
| April 8 022 | Magudumana holds a funeral in the early hours of the morning for her “father”. One year later, police exhume the coffin and find only rotten meat inside. |
| April 20 2022 | Bester’s first attempt at prison escape failed and the claimed body was thrown into the Kopano Nokeng River in Bloemfontein. |
| April 23 2022 | Magudumana and her gardener, who is accused No 9, approached the mortuary at National Hospital in Bloemfontein to claim another unidentified body, alleging it “Temba Ndolvu”, the brother of her gardener. The body was that of Katlego Bareng. |
| April 27 2022 | “TK Nkwana” hired a rental car at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in the name of Magudumana’s father. |
| April 29 2022 | This rental car was used to smuggle a body into the G4S prison facility in Mangaung and was hidden in the workshop. |
| May 3 2022 | The body was smuggled into Bester’s cell and the corpse and cell were set alight. - Advertisement -  CCTV system was disconnected. Bester escaped and made his way to KwaZulu-Natal. Days later Magudumana drove her Porsche from Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal to pick up Bester. |
| May 5 2022 | Magudumana went to claim “Thabo Bester’s” burnt body from the prison. - Advertisement -
She submitted an affidavit declaring Bester was her partner and he had no other relatives. She arranged to transport the body to Gauteng. |
| May 10 2022 | Police received postmortem findings for the body which states the cause of death was blunt trauma to head and there were no signs of smoke inhalation. Police immediately stop Magudumana from burying the body and take custody of the remains. |
| August 2022 | A real estate agent states a man by the name of “TK Nkwana” accompanied Magudumana when they viewed a high-end property in Johannesburg. TK told the agent he wanted to rent the space for events. |
| March 2023 | A photograph showing Maguduma and Bester shopping together is revealed. |
| March 21 2023 | Magudumana and Bester flee the Hyde Park property and shortly after that they leave South Africa. |
| April 7 2023 | The couple is caught in Tanzania on their way to cross the border into Kenya. |
| April 13 2023 | The couple is flown back to South Africa and arrested. |
| August 29 2023 | Magudumana brings her bail application in front of a magistrate in Mangaung. |
