Durban — In a turn of events, a former constable alleged to have killed his elderly mother two years ago by assaulting her with a wooden plank with nails in it has requested to be sent for psychological evaluation.
On Wednesday KwaDabeka (Stanger) Constable Lungisani Xaba, 49, appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court where he instructed his Legal Aid attorney to convey that he wanted to be sent to Fort Napier Psychiatric Hospital in Pietermaritzburg for an evaluation on the basis that he was not in the right frame of mind at the time of the alleged offence.
However, State prosecutor T Govender said the accused had to be evaluated by a district sergeant first and the resulting preliminary report would tell whether he required a bed to be booked for him at Fort Napier.
Xaba is charged with the murder of Greta Xaba, 70, who used a wheelchair.
He was arrested on May 7, 2022, in KwaDabeka for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. However, the charge was changed to murder on May 8 after his mother died. He has been behind bars since his arrest in May 2022.
He has been refused bail twice and has changed lawyers five times since making his first appearance in court.
In July 2022, following his arrest, he was refused bail by magistrate Wendalynn Robinson in the district court.
One of the reasons the magistrate cited in refusing Xaba bail was that the investigating officer had told the court Xaba was familiar with some of the State witnesses, and the testimony they were expected to give. But in Xaba’s affidavit, he was adamant that he did not know the witnesses.
The following year in March, Xaba again applied for bail. However, magistrate Robinson ruled that the facts he had presented to the court could not be considered new.
In her ruling, Robinson said that when she initially denied Xaba bail he had failed to prove that his children’s needs were not being met.
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