Zandile Mafe, who faces charges of terrorism and arson, on Wednesday admitted in the Western Cape high court that he had set fire to parliament at the beginning of last year. (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)
Zandile Mafe, who faces charges of terrorism and arson, on Wednesday admitted in the Western Cape high court that he had set fire to parliament at the beginning of last year.
But a psychiatric report has found that Mafe is not fit to stand trial and was not aware of his conduct when he burned down the building.
“I want that parliament, which I burned. Me,” Mafe said, pointing at himself. “I burned it so that it must move [from] here. It must be changed to be a public toilet. That parliament must go to Bloemfontein.”
Appearing to be unstable, Mafe told Judge Nathan Erasmus that he was not afraid of a life sentence and that he would be president in 2043.
Mafe was remanded in the hospital section of Pollsmoor Prison on 8 June after undergoing a 30-day mental evaluation at the Fort England psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape.
Earlier this year, Erasmus ordered psychiatrists to determine “whether the accused, because of mental illness and or intellectual disability, is capable of understanding the court proceedings to make a proper defence”, and whether he was aware of the wrongfulness of the act he allegedly carried out last year.
On Thursday, the judge said he had decided to “lift the bar” on the findings of the psychiatric report, which says Mafe is “unable” to follow court proceedings “as to make proper defence”.
It adds that “at the time of the alleged events the accused was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act in question and unable to act in accordance with such appreciation of wrongfulness”.
The findings were made as a result of a diagnosis of a mental illness. Erasmus said he would not disclose the details, but ordered that Mafe should not be placed in the “general population” and must be held separately in a prison’s hospital section.
The report will assist correctional services’ healthcare professionals to provide Mafe with the necessary healthcare he needs, the judge added.
In court on Thursday, Mafe went off on a tangent about various subjects ranging from race relations, land ownership, leading figures in the Democratic Alliance and saying he had burnt down parliament. Mafe’s lawyer, Nikiwe Nyathi, managed to calm him down after a police officer had failed to do so.
Erasmus postponed the matter to 10 August. Its previous postponement on 8 June came after Dali Mpofu SC, for Mafe, requested time to consult his client regarding his medical report from Fort England.
Mafe is charged with housebreaking, terrorism, arson and theft in connection with the 2 January 2022 fire, which severely damaged the National Assembly and parts of the old assembly.
He has refused to appear in court on three occasions, either demanding to be provided with a kettle and flat-screen television or claiming that he is on hunger strike or “bluntly refusing to leave his prison cell”, Eric Ntabazalila, the Western Cape spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, said in previous statements.