The appeal against the conviction of a 24-year-old man who held a home affairs employee hostage using a toy gun was postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Earlier, Kabelo Thibedi’s lawyer, Jafta Mphahleni, argued that expert testimony in the case had been misinterpreted.
Mphahleni pointed to expert testimony of a psychologist, which stated that the two syndromes used to explain Thibedi’s actions — sane automatism and non-pathological criminal incapacity — were not the same, as had been argued by the state.
Mphahleni said Thibedi had endured ”severe emotional stress built up over a long time, in this case for two years and six months” before the incident occurred.
Judge Lucas van der Skyf postponed his ruling on the application to August 22 for consideration of Mphahleni’s argument.
Mphahleni has volunteered his services free of charge.
Thibedi was sentenced to one year behind bars in 2006 after holding Department of Home Affairs officials hostage with a toy gun in an attempt to get his identity document.
On the afternoon of November 30 2005 he locked himself and the hostage in a room for about six hours, demanding his identity document before he would let her go.
The ID book was eventually brought to him from Pretoria by home affairs officials.
Lebogang Heather, who said she had been waiting for her ID since 2005, was present in court to support Thibedi.
Young Communist League spokesperson Castro Ngobese said of the case: ”The matter had gone on for too long and justice needed to be done.”
”We are appealing to the victim [Lanelle Small] to forgive Kabelo Thibedi. He is not a criminal …
”The fact that Lebogang Heather, who we tried to help get her ID since 2005, [and] has still not received her ID, shows that we have a crisis at home affairs.”
”They [home affairs] should have been here to be crucified for having deprived not only Kabelo, but also the Lebogangs of the country of IDs,” he said. — Sapa