Court battle looms over Netflix series on Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana
Mapaballo Borotho
- Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana have filed an urgent court application to stop Netflix from airing its upcoming docuseries Beauty and the Bester.
- The pair argue the production is inaccurate, unfair, and sensationalised.
- Netflix’s series will focus on Magudumana’s dramatic fall from a successful doctor to an accused accomplice in Bester’s 2022 prison escape.
Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, together with his partner in crime Nandipha Magudumana, have threatened legal action against Netflix over its upcoming docuseries Beauty and the Bester.
The three-part series reportedly portrays events linked to the notorious pair.
Both Bester and Magudumana filed urgent applications at the Johannesburg High Court seeking to block the release of the series, set to air next month.
This is not the first time the couple has attempted to stop productions about their lives.
In 2024, Bester lost a legal battle against Showmax over its four-part true crime documentary Tracking Thabo Bester, which detailed his audacious 2022 prison escape.
The series aired in two parts on 15 and 22 March 2024.
In his latest court filings, Bester argues that the Netflix series “strongly disputes the accuracy, fairness, and legitimacy” of events depicted.
He claims the production is filled with “falsehoods, selective editing, and unsubstantiated claims” aimed at sensationalism.
Unlike the Showmax series, Netflix’s limited docuseries shifts focus to Magudumana, her rise as a successful aesthetics doctor and her dramatic downfall as she faces multiple criminal charges.
She stands accused of aiding Bester’s escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre in 2022 and of fronting his fraudulent businesses.
Reports further allege that she hid him at her Hyde Park residence. The pair fled South Africa in 2023 after being spotted in public but were later arrested in Tanzania.
READ NEXT: Cyan Boujee responds to backlash over Russian recruitment promo on TikTok