#news: Majali co-accused deny insanity

Jan 11, 2011 10:07 PM | By khethiwe chelemu

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Two co-accused of the late businessman Sandi Majali caused drama in court when they strongly denied they were mentally ill or unfit to stand trial.

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Sandile Majali

'I object to this scenario of escaping or being mental'

Stephen Khoza, the alleged mastermind behind the hijacking of multibillion-rand company Kalahari Resources, and Elvis Ndala, appeared in the Specialised Crimes Court in Johannesburg yesterday.

Their co-accused, Haralambos Sferopoulos, was not present. He is being held for observation at the Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital until the end of January.

The men face fraud charges, as did Majali, who was found dead in a Johannesburg hotel room last month.

The charges relate to the alleged hijacking of Kalahari Resources. It is estimated that the amount involved in the case is about R1-billion.

The accused allegedly removed the names of Kalahari Resources directors Daphne Mashile-Nkosi and her brother, Brian Mashile, from the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office database and replaced them with their own names.

The state alleges that they did this to receive dividends that would be used to assist Majali, who was in dire straits financially at the time.

Khoza and Sferopoulos were classified as involuntary patients at Sterkfontein and were said to have been on the run from the hospital at the time of their arrest.

Yesterday, prosecutor Shaun Abrahams said two independent psychiatrists at the Sterkfontein hospital had reported that Khoza was not fit to stand trial and could not understand the wrongfulness of his alleged actions.

But Khoza rejected the findings of the psychiatrists who examined him and asked for an independent review of their assessment of his mental condition. He said such an inquiry would force the state to reveal further particulars from the psychiatrists' report.

Abrahams objected, saying it would be premature to order an inquiry as proposed by Khoza .

Ndala, who represented himself yesterday, caused a stir when he told magistrate Ashika Ramlaal that her order that he be referred for mental observation later this month was wrong and fraudulent.

"Accusations that I am mentally ill are totally out of line. I object to this whole scenario of escaping or being mental," he said.

A psychiatrist who recently examined him at Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital had assured him that he was not psychotic , Ndala said.

Ramlaal interjected and told him: "I am going to have to stop you there. I ordered that you be sent for observation.

"It is in your interest that this evidence [of a psychiatrist assuring him that he was not mentally ill] be placed before me."

But Ndala was having none of it.

"That order was wrong. This is really unfair.

"You [should] rather send me to prison because I am not going to go for that observation."

It was at this stage that Ramlaal ordered that he be removed from the court.

The case was postponed to February 1, when the state intends to hand in Majali's death certificate.

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