Terrorism charge for suspect in South Africa Parliament fire

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A homeless man accused of setting a fireplace that destroyed a part of South Africa’s historic Parliament complicated was charged with terrorism Tuesday and despatched to a psychiatric hospital for a month for evaluation.

Zandile Mafe, 49, appeared in a courtroom in Cape City for a bail listening to, when the terrorism cost was added to his indictment. Mafe was already charged with burglary with intent to steal, theft, two counts of arson and possession of an explosive gadget when he appeared in court docket for the primary time final week.

Prosecutors now contend that Mafe had supposed to “ship, place, discharge or detonate” the explosive gadget on the Parliament complicated.

The Parliament precinct in Cape City was ravaged by a significant blaze, which Mafe is accused of beginning early on Jan. 2. It took firefighters 4 days to utterly extinguish the hearth. It destroyed the principle chamber of the Nationwide Meeting constructing, the place South Africa’s Parliament sits, and in addition brought about intensive injury to different buildings within the 130-year-old complicated, which has hosted the nationwide legislature because the time of British colonialism within the late 1800s.

In all, 300 firefighters, some atop cranes, labored for greater than 70 hours to tame the blaze. No accidents had been reported as Parliament was closed for the vacations.

The scale of the hearth and the extent of the injury instantly raised considerations there had been an intentional assault on South Africa’s seat of democracy.

Mafe, who was described as homeless in his first court docket look, was arrested on the scene on the day the hearth began and located with an explosive gadget, authorities mentioned. The investigation has been taken over by a South African police unit that offers with high-profile crimes, and it mentioned there could possibly be extra arrests.

Mafe has denied the fees in opposition to him and a protection lawyer claimed he's getting used as a scapegoat to cowl up failings in Parliament safety.

On Tuesday, the decide ordered that Mafe be despatched to the Valkenberg psychiatric hospital in Cape City for a 30-day evaluation. Prosecutors had submitted a report from a physician who recognized Mafe with paranoid schizophrenia, prosecution spokesman Eric Ntabazalila mentioned.

Mafe had threatened to go on a starvation strike if he wasn’t launched on bail, his legal professionals mentioned, however a call on his bail was postponed till his psychiatric evaluation was full.

Questions stay over how Mafe received into the complicated and why the Parliament fireplace sprinkler system didn’t work.

Authorities minister Patricia de Lille mentioned on the time of the hearth that a water valve had been turned off. However a preliminary report into the blaze identified some failings in Parliament’s fireplace security plan and mentioned components of the hearth sprinkler system hadn’t been serviced as typically as they need to have. The report additionally famous the system’s water valve ought to have been locked within the open place.

There was one other surprising improvement within the case when lawyer Dali Mpofu, a former chairman of an opposition political social gathering in South Africa, joined Mafe’s authorized crew as his chief protection lawyer. Mpofu can also be defending former South African President Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial.