Cape Town – Dr Nandipha Magudumana has reportedly enlisted the help of Advocate Anton Katz SC, a renowned legal expert, in her bid for freedom.
According to IOL, Katz has a strong track record, having worked on high-profile cases such as the Gupta extradition, the matter involving former president Jacob Zuma, Schabir Shaik, and Thales SA, as well as Sekunjalo Investment Holdings’ fight against the Public Investment Corporation.
He specialises in international law and has provided consultancy services to organisations like the United Nations and the African Union on matters related to extradition and terrorism.
In addition to his work in South Africa, Katz has also handled significant cases in Namibia, Swaziland, and Botswana, the report said.
Magudumana recently filed an urgent application to challenge her arrest and deportation to South Africa, claiming that it was illegal.
She alleged that she was handcuffed and blindfolded, though these claims have been vehemently denied by the State, police, and the Department of Home Affairs.
Magudumana argues that her arrest in Tanzania was unlawful and asserts that she was not deported but rather extradited.
She is facing 12 charges related to her fugitive boyfriend, Thabo Bester, who escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Facility in the Free State.
[WATCH] #DrNandipha Magudumana’s lawyer, Adv. Anton Katz says Magudumana’s deportation was a disguised extradition. “It was a collusion between South African and Tanzanian officials…”#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/M8G60RYymL
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) June 1, 2023
In court, Katz argued that Magudumana’s case represented a “disguised extradition” unlike anything he had seen before.
“The SAPS and NPA contend that there was a deportation decision by Tanzania on April 12, which required the applicant [Magudumana] to leave Tanzania within three days.
“The conduct of the respondents is quintessentially a disguised extradition. There was no unilateral act on the part of Tanzania because there was an agreement to deport to SA.
“The applicant was not entitled to place herself beyond Tanzania’s borders within three days, because she was handed over to SA officials who exercised custody over her. And the basis of her deportation was to achieve the purpose of extradition — namely, securing the presence of the applicant in SA to stand trial on criminal charges,” Times Live quoted Katz as saying.
He claimed that the police and Home Affairs officials violated both international and South African constitutional laws in the process of bringing Magudumana back to South Africa.
“This [flies] in the face of every single deportation extradition doctrine throughout the world and through centuries, and centuries.
“South Africa will decide whether to send an extradition request, depending on what Tanzanians tell us and if the Tanzanians tell us that we’ll hand over her without an extradition [okay]… if they say we’ve got to bring an extradition request, we bring an extradition request,” Katz said, according to EWN.
The report said that he based his argument on a 2001 Constitutional Court judgment that clarified the difference between extradition and deportation.
The State, on the other hand, has refuted Magudumana’s claims, stating that they are baseless.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
