Johannesburg - It has taken eight months for awaiting-trial prisoner Carlos Higuera to get to number 89 on the waiting list for psychiatric evaluation.
Now the man accused of murdering Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s son Chumani claims he is being prejudiced and his rights to a speedy trial are being infringed.
This is according to Higuera’s lawyer Jabulani Maluleke, who expressed his frustration on Tuesday at yet another delay in the case in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.
His client, Higuera, is yet to be given a bed at a psychiatric institution despite a court order issued about eight moths ago for him to be admitted in order to establish whether he is fit to stand trial.
“Is there any justice being done? The answer is no,” said Maluleke. “Our client is being prejudiced.”
Higuera is now 89th on the list to be admitted to Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital, compared to 113th almost two months ago, which the State described as a positive movement.
The prosecution said it was doing all it could to expedite the matter but was told by officials at the psychiatric hospital that they were inundated and Higuera had to wait his turn to be admitted.
But Maluleke lambasted the State over its inability to find Higuera a bed at the institution, insisting that it should have fast-tracked the matter.
“There is no fairness in the case; my client has the right to a speedy trial according to the constitution,” he said.
Maluleke once again asked the court to strike the matter off the roll for now so that Higuera’s family could admit him to a private institution instead.
He had made the same request during Higuera’s previous court appearance in May, when the matter was postponed for the same reason.
But magistrate Albertus Roux once again denied the request, saying it would be irresponsible for the court to do so because Higuera was accused of a serious crime.
Despite this, Roux admitted that the lack of space at Sterkfontein was frustrating and unfortunate, although he said the State had made concerted efforts to secure a bed for him.
“The institution is dragging its feet, and that is the problem with the matter,” he said.
Roux then reluctantly postponed the matter to September 19 in the hope that by that time, a space at the institution would be available for the accused.
Higuera, who allegedly fatally stabbed Chumani after a scuffle between the pair at a house in Bezuidenhout Valley, Joburg, in October last year, has been in custody since his arrest that month.
Maluleke had told the court that his client was too mentally unstable to stand trial.
This argument was corroborated by Higuera’s father George, who testified that Higuera had been diagnosed with schizophrenia after the death of his mother and his girlfriend in 2010.
George said his son had told doctors that he “heard voices in his head which would tell him what to do” and that his medication was altered a few days before the fatal attack on Chumani.
Chumani’s father is Charles Nqakula, a former minister of defence and the current South African high commissioner to Mozambique.
The Star