Delay in charging inmates violates Dr Magudumana’s rights: Lawyer

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The delay in charging two inmates who allegedly assaulted Dr Nandipha Magudumana with assault is a violation of her rights. This is according to Magudumana’s lawyer, Machini Motloung, following reports of her alleged assault in the infirmary of the Bizzah Makhathe Correctional Centre in Kroonstad on Sunday.

Motloung says Magudumana reported fears for her safety to the centre’s senior coordinator on Saturday after receiving threats of violence, but no action was taken.

Magudumana was arrested in April last year in Tanzania after allegedly aiding rape convict Thabo Bester to escape from Mangaung Prison in Bloemfontein in 2022.

The lawyer says the conditions she is subjected to at the Correctional Centre put her human rights into question. He says the first assault was when officials from the prison forcefully hurled her to the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court for one of her appearances and in the process assaulted her.

Motloung provides details of the alleged assault.

“I also received a call from my client, the call was quite brief. There was an assault which is confirmed. The source could have been issues that also have to do with her praying in the cell and singing with other inmates. There have been tensions brewing between her and an inmate who is a sangoma who allegedly is the one who fueled this assault to take place. What is concerning is that the assault was executed by a mentally challenged inmate.”

The lawyer says they plan to report her incarceration conditions in prison to the South African Human Rights Commission.