Axe man and former Blue Bulls flank Joseph Ntshongwana makes his way up from the holding cells at the Durban High Court.
Picture: Doctor Ngcobo
The odds were stacked against former Blue Bulls flanker Joseph Ntshongwane yesterday when three leading psychiatrists and the police’s serial killings expert said he was fit to stand trial and knew what he was doing when he allegedly murdered four people, decapitating three, for no apparent reason.
Dr Gerard Labuschagne, head of the police investigative psychology unit, told Durban High Court Judge Kate Pillay yesterday that the crimes for which Ntshongwane – dubbed “the axe man” – had been charged had been investigated as “serial killings” because they fitted the profile of having a psychological motive.
However, he said, this did not mean that Ntshongwane was mentally ill and could not be held responsible for the murders. “I have worked on 100 murder cases and have helped put in prison people who have killed other people.
“They are not mentally ill. If you start with the crime as being a symptom, it becomes a problematic starting point,” he said.
Judge Pillay is overseeing an inquiry into whether the burly rugby player could appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions and had the mental capacity to act in accordance with this at the time of allegedly committing the offences in November 2010 and March last year. Should she find he did not, he would be committed to a mental institution. However, most of the experts’ evidence yesterday pointed to his being referred to trial.
Labuschagne said he had been called in by the investigating officer to assist in the investigation and, after Ntshongwane’s arrest, had sat in on an interview with him. “He displayed no signs of mental illness. We chatted about his rugby… and sport,” he said.
Labuschagne said serial killers often functioned normally in society and in general were “the last person you would expect to commit such crimes”.
Strangers
Regarding evidence that Ntshongwane had been “delusional and persecuted”, he said a person in that situation would normally withdraw from society, not go out at night and stalk strangers with an axe.
Ntshongwane was previously interviewed by four psychiatrists at Fort Napier hospital, two of whom initially found that his judgment had been impaired and that he might not, at the time, have been able to appreciate that what he was doing was wrong.
However, both changed their minds yesterday, after hearing submissions by the prosecutor, advocate Rea Mina, about evidence that he had apparently planned his crimes. He had left one murder scene only to return to take the decapitated head and hide it in a bin, and had tried to hide bloodied clothing and the axe in a dog kennel at his mother’s home. He had also cleaned a bathroom and the seats of a car he had hired.
This attempt at “concealment”, said doctors Soobiah Moodley and Bertram Brayshaw, showed that he had acted with purpose.
Regarding evidence that Ntshongwane had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, and suggestions that he had stopped taking his medication, both specialists said aggression was unusual in such cases.
A fourth expert, Professor Anthony Pillay, said while he believed Ntshongwane had been aware of what he was doing, he could not say conclusively that he had been in control of his actions.
He is charged with murdering Thembelenkosini Cebekhulu in Montclair on March 20, 2011, Paulos Hlongwa in Lamontville two days later, and Simon Ngidi in Umbilo a day after. He is also accused of murdering an unidentified man in Yellowwood Park later that month.
The two attempted murder charges relate to incidents on March 21 and 22 when he attacked Siyanda Khumalo and Khayelani Mdluli with an axe. Both managed to escape from him.
Ntshongwane is also charged with another assault, on November 26 last year, and with assaulting and kidnapping a woman a few days later.
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