The arson case against Zandile Mafe, the man accused of setting parliament on fire, has been postponed to June 9 due to outstanding forensic reports.
Mafe appeared briefly at the Cape Town magistrate’s court on Thursday on charges of theft, housebreaking, and arson.
Mafe, a homeless man, was arrested in January after parliament caught fire. He remains in police custody.
He denies all the charges but in February the prosecutors told the court that facial recognition experts had positively identified Mafe from a video footage collected on the day of the fire.
Mafe’s lawyer Luvuyo Godla expressed frustration, stating that judgment in this matter is long overdue.
“It’s almost mid-2022, yet we [are] still postponing the matter due to outstanding forensic reports, it’s not right,” said Godla.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalisa said: “The delays on the reports that we are expecting, the damage report as well as the engineering report. Both reports, we expect them to be ready when we come back on 9 June.”
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