Pretoria - Mamelodi businessman Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela, who is facing sentencing, with his three co-accused, for the 2015 murder of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana, is struggling mentally and physically behind bars.
He is also “begging the court for mercy, as his family need him home”.
This is according to a clinical psychologist, who did an assessment of Mathibela and his co-accused, Sipho Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo, prior to them being sentenced in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
The four were convicted in June this year of Bozwana’s murder and the attempted murder of his business partner, Mpho Baloyi. While no motive for the killing was presented to the court, the four vehemently denied any knowledge of the murder.
Bozwana died in a hail of bullets fired into the vehicle driven by Baloyi when it stopped at a red robot at the Garsfontein off-ramp, off the N1.
Both the clinical psychologist, who asked not to be named, and a social worker assessed the four accused, in a bid to present mitigating factors to Judge Papi Mosopa.
The clinical psychologist also did a number of clinical tests on them.
Regarding Mathibela, she found that he presented with symptoms which met the diagnostic criteria of “generalised anxiety disorder” symptoms which met the diagnostic criteria of a major depressive disorder.
He also displayed symptoms of a post-traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms of a personality disorder.
Mathibela told the psychologist that he had serious medical health concerns that could not be treated in prison. He walks with a limp, and it is understood that he was involved earlier in a serious car accident.
The court was told that he had been awaiting trial in prison for about four years, which had led to feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness and despondency. The psychologist said it was crucial to consider the period that he had been detained as he had constantly dealt with the anxiety and uncertainty of his sentencing.
“Mr Mathibela is struggling to cope with solitary confinement, and a decline in mental health is noted in the schizoid presentation,” she stated.
She warned that this could be considered not only “psychological torture” but also “physical torture”.
“Mr Mathibela requires psychotherapeutic intervention to assist him in coping with the management of his condition,” she told Judge Mosopa.
Mathibela grew up in Mamelodi East. He was mainly raised by his grandmother and not by his parents.
His father was involved in the taxi business. He died in 2018 and Matibela’s mother has continued with the taxi business. Mathibela said his uncle used to help him with the business, as the uncle was a chairman of a taxi association before he died in 2019.
Mathibela told the psychologist that he had a business background and was able to make a success of every business he had started.
In dealing with her findings regarding the other three accused, the psychologist found that being behind bars – especially in C-Max – was not conducive to their mental well-being.
The accused described how they were locked up in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, with very little time to shower and to spend time in the prison courtyard.
Prosecutor Jennifer Cronje, meanwhile, posed several questions to the psychologist regarding her findings.
Cronje indicated that she would also present victim impact reports to the court in aggravation of sentence, to show how the death of Bozwana had impacted on his family.
Sentencing procedures are expected to continue until the end of this week.
Pretoria News