Durban’s alleged axe man, former Blue Bulls flanker Joseph Ntshongwane, told police after his arrest that he was Jesus Christ.
“This is surely a sign that he is mentally ill… who would claim that?” his mother, Phyllina Letlaka, told Durban High Court Judge Kate Pillay yesterday.
The judge is overseeing an inquiry into whether Ntshongwane, 34, should stand trial on nine charges, including four of murder and two of attempted murder.
The State alleges that Ntshongwane is a serial killer who stalked strangers and then axed them to death, decapitating three of them.
Medication
But his family says he is a diagnosed schizophrenic with bipolar disorder. They say Ntshongwane had stopped taking his medication and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions at the time of allegedly committing the crimes.
Letlaka read from several reports from psychologists who had seen Ntshongwane at various hospitals from the time he was diagnosed in December 2009.
In the reports are references to her son having “psychotic symptoms” with “paranoid, persecutory, religious and grandiose delusions”.
At one stage, Ntshongwane told hospital staff that he could see his stepfather, who was dead.
Letlaka said that after his arrest, Ntshongwane had been kept in police cells, where the policemen who attended to him told her he had claimed to be Jesus Christ.
Later, he was detained at Westville Prison’s hospital.
“We were called by the head of prison, who asked us what was wrong with him. We found him in isolation.
“He could not recognise us. He had lost his speech. Staff said that he never washed, wouldn’t eat and was sleeping on the concrete floor, even though there was a bed,” said Letlaka.
Under cross-examination by State advocate Rea Mina, she denied a suggestion that her son had been “fine” when he was arrested, and also at his first court appearance.
“I could see when they took him away in the van that he was not fine. His personality change showed on his face.”
Mina said Ntshongwane had only become agitated during an identity parade after his first court appearance, at which two people had pointed him out as the axe killer.
“Before a third person came in, he dived to the floor, shouting, and the parade had to be aborted. Then, at his second court appearance, he exhibited strange behaviour,” she said.
The hearing was adjourned until February 24 for another psychologist’s report to be presented.
