Independent Newspapers
Joseph Ntshongwane is seen in the Durban High Court. Photo: S’bonelo Ngcobo
Durban – Former Blue Bulls flanker Joseph Ntshongwana must have been having a “psychotic breakdown” when he allegedly committed the crimes he is charged with, psychiatrist Professor Abubaker Gangat said on Wednesday.
However, this did not necessarily mean he was “mad” and it would have been possible for him to behave normally and, for example, to drive a car when he left a scene, he said.
Gangat – who says he has assessed Ntshongwana three times while he has been in custody at Westville prison hospital following his arrests in connection with four murders and other crimes allegedly committed between December 2010 and March 2011 – was adamant on Wednesday that the burly man the State says is a serial killer suffers from a delusion disorder and cannot be held criminally responsible for his deeds.
As opposed to a defence of “non-pathological criminal incapacity”, in which a person claimed they committed a crime because they “snapped”, his client would fit into the “pathological incapacity” bracket. This was because he suffered a mental illness diagnosed in 2009 and it was verified by doctors at various hospitals over the years, the professor said in his evidence in the Durban High Court.
The State, in presenting its evidence, has attempted to show that Ntshongwana must have been aware that his actions were wrong, because he tried to cover his alleged crimes by fleeing scenes and hiding potential evidence, including bloody clothes and the axe he allegedly used to chop off his victims’ heads.
His lawyer, however, is proceeding with a defence of mental illness. Defence attorney Themba Majoli placed on record on Wednesday that throughout the duration of the trial so far, he had managed to only consult Ntshongwana for about 30 minutes. Gangat said he too had had difficulty interviewing Ntshongwana.
On the first occasion in July last year, he had “bluntly” told him that he would not speak to him.
“He was extremely suspicious… the medical officer reported to me that he would kneel on the floor, reading his Bible and speaking in an unknown language. I observed him behaving in a very bizarre manner as though he was preaching.
“His mother said he had stopped eating and was suspicious of being poisoned.”
Gangat said patients with delusion disorders became illogical and “fixed” in their ideas and their delusionary world eventually merged with the real one.
They could become paranoid and violent and, although they were often “well-groomed” and sometimes did show obvious signs of being mentally ill, they could lose control and lose touch with reality.
Gangat said he had seen Ntshongwana again last Friday and discovered that he was not under the care of a psychiatrist and his medication had not been altered since March 2011.
He had been vague when asked about the murder charges, the potential consequences thereof and said he could not remember any of the alleged incidents.
“He spoke of chicken his mother brought him and said that something strange was going on… that people were taking his food and damaging his clothes.”
The trial, before Acting Judge Irfaan Khallil, was adjourned until September when Gangat will be cross-examined.
The Mercury
