Beauty and the Bester: Who is Mkhuseli Magudumana? Details from the Netflix docuseries, explored

True-crime docu series, Beauty and the Bester, was released on 12th September 2025 on Netflix. The series revolves around Thabo Bester's prison escape and Dr. Nandipha Magudumana's role in it.

A name that keeps re-surfacing post-release is Mkhuseli Magudumana, Nandipha's former husband and father of her two daughters. Although Netflix docuseries shines a bit of light on Mkhuseli Magudumana in relation to his ex-wife, most of the coverage is around Thabo Bester and Dr. Nandipha.

So, who exactly is he, and how is he important to the story?

A doctor who kept his distance from the storm

Mkhuseli Oscar Magudumana, often called Mac, shared a life with Nandipha. The two doctors got married in 2013, as per the report by GroundUp.

The couple had two daughters, Ayana and Aziza, and they lived in Johannesburg.

While Nandipha was a cosmetic surgeon, Mkhuseli is a pediatrician and runs his own clinic in Benoni, Gauteng, specialising in caring for children from birth to the age of 18.

As Netflix's Beauty and the Bester points out, things began to change around 2017, when Nandipha reportedly got involved with Thabo Bester, the convicted r*pist and murderer who was still in prison at the time.

In the report published by GroundUp, Mkhuseli and Nandipha had entered a civil marriage, which was registered under the Home Affairs database. But, according to their mutual friend and journalist Redi Tlhabi's social media post on X, published in a report by The South African, it was revealed that the couple got divorced in 2022.

The journalist also disclosed in another post that Mkhuseli lives with his two daughters. As per the docu-series, Mkhuseli did not step into the media spotlight, choosing to raise his daughters away from all the attention. Further, he also did not publicly speak out regarding his ex-wife's decisions.

Beauty and the Bester: Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana

Netflix docuseries, Beauty and the Bester, prefaces the series through a 2011 interview of Thabo Bester by a psychologist. As the narrative progresses, the series jumps into different timelines, revealing Bester's Facebook scams and crimes, trying to connect the prison break of Bester in 2022 and his involvement with Nandipha Magudumana, as well as her role in the escape.

According to Netflix, the synopsis of the docu-series is,

"Did renowned Dr Nandipha get embroiled in Thabo Bester's prison break? This chilling documentary series examines the enigmatic ties that bound them."

You can stream Beauty and the Bester on Netflix.

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