Thabo Bester to remain in KZN prison after court strikes urgent transfer bid

Thabo Bester will have to remain at eBongweni Super Maximum Correctional facility in KwaZulu-Natal - at least for now - after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria struck his urgent bid to be moved back to Gauteng from the roll.

Judge Elizabeth Kubushi found his “extremely urgent” application not to be so urgent as to not afford Correctional Services time to reply to it. She also found that it was not properly enrolled. She said there is nothing barring Bester to again enroll the matter if he so wished.

The court did not deal with the merits of his application, as the question of urgency was argued first. Advocate Neil Snellenburg SC for the department asked the court to either strike the matter from the roll or, alternatively, afford the department time to answer the allegations made against it by Bester.

He argued that Bester’s legal team only gave the department one day to note its opposition to the urgent application and one day to file court papers. But Bester’s counsel, lawyer Benjamin Moafrika wa Maila, argued about his client’s Constitutional rights which have been infringed by his “secret, in the middle of the night” move to Kokstad’s super prison on February 5, which he said made the matter urgent.

He pointed out that days after the move, Bester was due to argue an urgent application before the Bloemfontein High Court regarding his conditions of incarceration at Kgosi Mampuru Prison’s C-Max, and the fact that he cannot prepare for his criminal trial while in that prison.

Maila said while it was very difficult to consult with him in C-Max, his move to Kokstad’s super prison now made it near impossible as they can only have very short phone conversations.

Bester asked that Correctional Services immediately transfer him to a facility in Gauteng.

Maila argued that super jails made it very difficult for them to consult with him - not only for his pending criminal trial in Bloemfontein - but also for a host of other applications which are in the pipeline.

Maila said the legal team needs to take electronic devices with during consultations, so that they can discuss videos and other footage which will feature in the trial, with him. But it is impossible to take these devices into the super prisons.

He explained that they previously had to consult with Bester through a thick glass window, which made it very difficult to hear each other or to refer to documents. They had to at times resort to making notes and holding it against the glass.

He also questioned the fact that Bester’s legal team were never told - before and after - he was whisked away in the middle of the night of February 5 to Kokstad. Maila said this only came to light after a family member wanted to book a visit with him and was told he was no longer there. A day after his transfer Bester contacted his lawyer, but could only speak for a minute or so, to tell them of the move and to ask that this urgent application be lodged.

He told the court that Bester’s criminal trial is back in Bloemfontein on March 18, thus he urgently had to consult with his lawyers, which are in Gauteng, hundreds of kilometers away. It emerged that the matter is set down on March 18 only for pretrial proceedings - to iron out all the issues before the main trial starts in July. But Maila said it does not matter that it is pretrial proceedings, as they still had to consult Bester on it.

“Our client urgently needs to come back to Gauteng so that we can prepare for the criminal trial,” he told the court. Maila also said that Bester’s legal team needs to see him to ensure that he is safe.

Cape Times