Cape Town – Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Monday maintained that Dr Nandipha Magudumana was lawfully deported from Tanzania in April.
Magudumana’s legal team filed papers in court over the weekend, demanding her immediate release and the nullification of orders and warrants against her.
The case is scheduled to be heard by the high court in Bloemfontein on 25 May.
But Motsoaledi said that both Magudumana and Bester were declared prohibited immigrants by Tanzanian authorities and were, thus, deported back to their home country.
On Dr Magudumana’s court application, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says, “#DrNandiphaMagudumana and #ThaboBester were declared prohibited immigrants in terms of the immigration laws of Tanzania and were therefore, as a matter of law, liable to be deported back to the country of origin.” pic.twitter.com/erH5myKcp6
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) May 22, 2023
The minister said that the Department of Home Affairs had received legal advice suggesting that there were strong grounds to revoke Magudumana’s passport.
“The department of Home Affairs has obtained legal advice that there are strong grounds to revoke the passport of Dr Nandipha Magudumana and that same action must be taken to that effect.
“The director general will be taking due legal process steps in terms of South African passports and travel documentation Act – Act number 4 of 1994… to revoke the passport issued to Dr Nandipha Magudumana on the 16th of February 2017 which is due to expire on the 15th of February 2027,” Motsoaledi said while briefing the media.
He said that the revocation was based on the belief that she no longer deserved to hold it.
The Department of Home Affairs plans to revoke the passport of Dr. Nandipha Magudumana. She’s been linked to Facebook rapist Thabo Bester and his escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre. #DStv403 #eNCA pic.twitter.com/6cJRXKq8I7
— eNCA (@eNCA) May 22, 2023
Meanwhile, according to EWN, Magudumana’s lawyer Machini Motloung was expected to argue the lawfulness of her arrest and subsequent repatriation from Tanzania.
But legal expert Malusi Xulu said that unless there was evidence of an improperly executed arrest warrant, Magudumana’s argument was unlikely to be successful in court, the report said.
Xulu said that her attorney may try to rely on a provision in the Tanzanian Immigration Act of 1995, but it was unlikely to be effective since Magudumana did not face a trial in Tanzania but was rather deported.
“I think that the attorneys of Dr Nandipha want to depend on subsection one of the same act that says before deportation is done you must be found guilty, but that is not the position in her case because she didn’t go to court in Tanzania, she was just deported,” the report quoted Xulu as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
