Parliament suffered a major security breach two weeks ago but police took no chances on Saturday for the bail application of a destitute man accused of arson and terrorism, Zandile Mafe.
Mafe was arrested while sleeping outside parliament on the day of the fire and was “severely and violently manhandled and intimidated” by the police, according to his affidavit submitted to the Cape Town high court.
The 49-year-old, who is in the Valkenberg psychiatric hospital for 30 days of observation, was absent from court on Saturday.
Nevertheless, police threw a security cordon around the city centre building and kept a close eye on a small group of protesters demanding his release.
Only a handful of journalists were allowed to attend the bail proceedings heard by Western Cape judge president John Hlophe.
Outside court, supporters of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) sang Mafe’s name and brandished placards bearing his image.
Azapo spokesperson Gaontebale Nodoba said it was “unheard of, in a democracy like this” that one of the few people to be charged with terrorism “happens to be a poor black homeless person”.
Mafe has been charged with contravening the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act, which places the onus on him to prove it is in the interests of justice to release him on bail.
Nodoba said the state was using Mafe as a scapegoat to deflect attention from ructions within the ruling party.
“As Azapo we are saying that the security of the state and the country is clearly at stake.”
He said the Gupta saga, looting at Eskom and the July unrest were just three examples of the serious threat to democracy.
“They say they know of 12 saboteurs [linked to the July unrest]. They belong to the ruling party. Why are they not arresting and charging them? Instead they arrest a poor man.”
Saturday’s protest outside court went largely unnoticed except for small groups of passers-by, among them Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, who happened to be cycling past on Long Street.
Speaking to reporters after the court adjourned, Mafe’s attorney Luvuyo Godla said he was relieved his client was finally able to have his say.
In his affidavit, Mafe said that after his arrest he had been told he would be sentenced to death for setting fire to parliament unless he co-operated with the police.
“I was terrified and as a result I promised to 'co-operate' with whatever they may require of me,” he said.
He denied being guilty of starting the fire, being mentally ill or posing any threat to anyone.
“I am not a criminal but a poor person who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said in his affidavit.
“I am not a terrorist. I am an ordinary and destitute South African, like millions of my fellow citizens. Like them I am angry about my conditions but I am not a violent man. I am also not insane.”
Mafe said he was born on Christmas Eve in 1972 in Mahikeng, and his mother died when he was very young. “I do not know what she looked like.”
He was brought up in Lonely Park by his stepmother, Zanele Mafe, and left school in grade 11, travelling to the Western Cape “looking for greener pastures”.
He had been unable to secure stable employment and had done occasional menial jobs such as carrying groceries to cars for shoppers.
“Very often the situation is so dire that it is economically unviable and impossible to commute daily between the city and my home in Khayelitsha,” he said.
“During those times I seek shelter in the streets of Cape Town, like many thousands of very poor people. One of my spots for doing so is in the vicinity of parliament.”
Hlophe adjourned the hearing until next Saturday, but on Tuesday Mafe's lawyers will appear before the judge president and at least one other judge to challenge a Cape Town magistrate's decision to send Mafe to Valkenberg.
This followed a diagnosis by a state doctor that Mafe suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
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