Thabo Bester seeks court order to halt Netflix documentary release

With just a few days to go before the  launch of the three part documentary true-crime series,  "Beauty and the Bester", convicted killer and rapist Thabo Bester is heading to court on Tuesday in an urgent bid to stop Netflix from releasing the much anticipated series. 

The matter has been set down before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where Judge Sulet Potterill is expected to hear the matter.

Bester wants the court to interdict Netflix from releasing the documentary on Friday, claiming that the series contains inaccurate, defamatory and unsubstantiated claims and violates his and his life partner Nandipha Magudumana’s constitutional rights. 

Both Bester and Magudumana are behind bars, awaiting trial on several charges after they were arrested in 2023 in Tanzania.

Netflix has meanwhile widely advertised its three part series, which examines the connection between Magudumana’s and Bester’s alleged explosive prison escape and their subsequent journey.

Bester will take-on the producers of the documentary and it is expected that he will, at this stage, ask for an interim order to prevent the airing of the series, pending a final order to interdict the screening.

He wants the court to declare that the contents of the documentary series violates his constitutional rights to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

According to Bester he became aware of the documentary last month after Netflix had posted the trailer.  Bester, who is facing a host of criminal charges against him in the Bloemfontein High Court, believes that the documentary will cause him irreparable harm and it will have a detrimental  impact on his criminal trial.

He said that what he could gather from the trailer, the documentary included commentary and allegations of a criminal nature against him which is not presented on facts. He also complained that he was not afforded the right to reply to these allegations.

According to Netflix, the series presents "courtroom footage and never-before-seen investigative material that peel back the layers of a story where love, manipulation, and corruption collide, culminating in a jaw-dropping incident that stunned the world". 

The trailer, which has already been released, features friends and family, including Magudumana's father, Zolile Cornelius Sekeleni, DJ Pearl Thusi and TV personality Penny Lebyane. In their interviews with Netflix, they are trying to make sense of the bond between Magudumana and Bester. 

Beauty and the Bester is the second documentary produced by Netflix, with the first “Tracking Thabo Bester” which was released last year. Magudumana and Bester at the time also headed to the urgent court in a bid to stop the release of that documentary, but they failed in their legal bid.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za