Zandile Mafe, the man accused of setting Parliament on fire. File picture: Armand Hough, Independent Newspapers Archives
CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape High Court has declared alleged Parliament arsonist Zandile Christmas Mafe unfit to stand trial.
After months of delays and courtroom shenanigans, Judge Nathan Erasmus ruled that Mafe would be incapable of following court proceedings or instructing his defence team.
This follows a special inquiry held last month where Mafe boldly took the stand and slammed the state psychiatrists at Fort England Psychiatric Hospital in Makhanda, where he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
During the inquiry, state psychiatrist Dr TN Seshoko told the court the evaluation took longer than expected as Mafe often refused to co-operate.
He testified that Mafe had often refused to attend the sessions with psychiatrists and on one occasion when he did, he wore nothing but a towel.
Seshoko said that while at the facility, Mafe claimed that he set the building alight because he believed that President Cyril Ramaphosa was “working with white people to kill black people”.
He said Mafe also claimed that other patients were jealous of his hairstyle and claimed that another patient who had been referred to the facility from a prison in the Eastern Cape was in fact one of his fellow inmates at Pollsmoor Prison and had been brought in by government officials to Fort England to kill him.
Addressing various aspects of the State’s case, Mafe confirmed that he set the National Assembly alight in a bid to prevent the State of the Nation Address (Sona) that year.
He claimed that the annual address by Rampahosa should be considered the “State on Nonsense Address”, saying that poor people continued to suffer and claiming that there were no real changes in the country.
Mafe allegedly gave Ramapahosa and his Cabinet six days to resign from office and warned that a “second great storm” would be approaching South Africa.
Addressing the court on Monday, defence advocate Dali Mpofu claimed the report by Seshoko was “cryptic” and “defective”. He said just because the psychiatrists did not agree with Mafe’s political views that did not make him delusional.
State prosecutor advocate Mervyn Menigo said the report was adequate and took exception to Mpofu’s remarks that the State wanted to silence him. He said the State had a strong case against Mafe but prosecuting a person who has been declared mentally ill was not considering Mafe’s rights.
In his judgment, Judge Erasmus highlighted that a private psychiatrist hired by the defence team had come to the same conclusion.
“I attempted to listen to the accused and at some times he was not on point, but at other times he was clear as crystal. But I am not going to draw any inferences from that. My ruling is that he is not fit to stand trial.”