Alleged parliament arsonist Zandile Mafe’s pre-trial has been postponed to September 2 after the court heard that he is on hunger strike and is refusing to leave his Pollsmoor prison cell.
Defence lawyer Luvuyo Godla told the Western Cape High Court on Friday that the Department of Correctional Services would need to account because he was not aware that his client was on hunger strike.
Godla requested for the court proceedings to continue without Mafe, however, his request was turned down.
In June, the Cape Town magistrate’s court officially charged Mafe after receiving the outstanding damage and arson report.
State prosecutor Mervyn Menigo said at the time that the national director of public prosecutions had issued a certificate to pursue terrorism charges against Mafe, noting that the suspect officially faces charges of arson and housebreaking with intent to commit arson, contravention of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorism and Other Related Activities Act, alternatively terrorism, discharge of an explosive or lethal device, and theft.
The 49-year-old Mafe has been in police custody since his arrest in January for allegedly setting the National Assembly chambers on fire at the start of the year.
In May, Western Cape High Court judge Daniel Thulare ordered Mafe back to prison following the dismissal of his bail reapplication. The ruling infuriated Mafe’s legal representative advocate Dali Mpofu, who said at the time that his client was being denied his right to freedom.
Mpofu told a full bench of judges that Mafe had been incarcerated for five months without bail and without being proven guilty, and noted that if the incompetence of the police, prosecutor, and acting magistrate were put aside, his client would have long been released.
Mafe has maintained his innocence, but the prosecutors have told the court that facial recognition experts have positively identified him from a video footage collected on January 2, the day of the blaze.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
