Cape Town - Train arsonist Thobela Xoseni, 30, who set two trains alight at the Cape Town station is not mentally fit to stand trial and was sent as a state patient to the Valkenberg Hospital.
Magistrate Michelle Adams made this ruling on Thursday in the Cape Town Regional Court after listening to the psychiatric report and recommendations made by a panel who observed him at the psychiatric hospital.
Xoseni was accused of setting two trains alight in April at the Cape Town stations, and faced charges of unlawfully and intentionally damaging essential infrastructure racking up a bill of around R33m.
The report said: “He is currently mentally ill and although he has a good understanding of the charges against him, he would not be able to instruct his lawyer. He is not fit to stand trial and was not able to appreciate the wrongfulness of the alleged offence and act accordingly.
“The disposition fairest to the defendant and safest to the community would be for the court to send him to Valkenberg Hospital for further treatment as a state patient.”
The panel at Valkenberg also found that Xoseni had fixed beliefs of being persecuted by his family and for example was convinced that one of his female cousins organised people to follow him, sexually harass, exploit and kill him while he was in the library.
He further believed that she was working with one of the fellow patients in the ward to kill him. This resulted in Xoseni fighting with this particular patient in the ward.
He also admitted to hearing his neighbour’s voice who he believed bewitch him.