Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana will share the dock for the first time on Wednesday morning since she claimed that he forced her to skip the country with him

Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana are back in the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court this morning. This will be the first time the pair see each other since Magudumana turned on Bester, claiming he forced her out of the country against her will.

Bester and 11 others are facing charges including fraud and corruption, aiding and abetting a prisoner to escape and tampering with a corpse.

In May last year, Bester staged a brazen escape from the Mangaung Correctional Facility, where he was serving a life sentence.

Bester and Magudumana were arrested while on the run in Tanzania in April this year.

Bester and Magudumana will share the dock for the first time on Wednesday morning since she claimed that he forced her to skip the country with him, effectively kidnpping her.

Magudumana made these claims during her bid for bail, which was denied by Magistrate Estelle de Lange, who ruled that she remained a flight risk.

During the last appearance in August, Bester and Magudumana struggled to keep their eyes off each other while holding hands in the dock.

It was during that appearance that Bester’s lawyers told the court that upon his arrest, valuables worth R30 million, including luxury watches and foreign currency were stolen from him.

But police have rubbished these claims, saying they only confiscated two phones and a laptop from him when he landed in South Africa.

On Wednesday, Bester will be transported from the Kgosi Mampuru Prison in Pretoria to Bloemfontein, where he will appear with 11 of his co-accused, including G4S guards and service providers who allegedly assisted him in his prison break.

Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana