The Western Cape High Court has been informed that suspected parliament arsonist Zandile Mafe is unfit to account for his alleged crime.
Earlier in 2023, Mafe was directed for a psychiatric appraisal at the Fort England Psychiatric Hospital in Eastern Cape after he refused to be admitted to Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town.
The long-awaited medical report on Mafe’s state of sanity, resulting from an independent psychiatric assessment requested by his defence counsel, has now been revealed.
The report concludes that Mafe is not fit to stand trial.
In a dramatic turn of events at the same court in July, Mafe went on a rant and admitted to burning down the National Assembly chambers in January 2022.
The presiding judge, Nathan Erasmus, intervened and called upon Mafe’s legal team to calm him down.
In his rant, he expressed frustration with the current state of service delivery and loadshedding.
He claimed responsibility for burning the National Assembly chambers and threatened to orchestrate more acts of arson if parliament does not relocate.
“I burnt it intentionally, me Christmas Zandile Mafe. I am going to arrange more [attacks] if it does not move to Bloemfontein or Pretoria,” he lashed out.
“The service-delivery protests which are occurring outside are about my release. Last year, service-delivery protests occurred 5 000 times, and most of them were violent service delivery [protests].
“Loadshedding occurred 2 900 hours last year, loadshedding occurred 207 days last year. Loadshedding occurred 177 times, I want this parliament to the majority of the people.”
Reading parts of the psychiatric report, Erasmus stated that Mafe was found unfit to stand trial. “The accused is unable to follow court proceedings to make a proper defence.
“At the time of the alleged offence, the accused was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act in question.”
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