A suspect who was arrested after repeated intrusions into Sbu Mpisane’s heavily guarded mansion in La Lucia would not stand trial because he had been declared mentally unfit, said KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda.
The estranged husband of Premier Soccer League Royal AM Football Club boss Shawn Mkhize lamented the missed opportunity of a trial which he hoped would reveal how the suspect had a key to his house which he allegedly entered four times between 2022 and late last year.
“The court ruled that the suspect should be sent to a mental institution for evaluation and results thereof revealed that he was unfit to stand trial. The cases were duly closed,” said Netshiunda.
Mpisane said he had hoped the suspect would reveal in court why he repeatedly targeted his house.
The 28-year-old accused had faced charges of business burglary for breaking into Mpisane’s business premises, trespassing into Mpisane’s home and housebreaking.
“Following an enquiry in terms of section 78 (6) (a) (ii) (aa) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, the court ruled (on August 20) that the accused be committed to a mental institution,” said NPA provincial spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara.
Mpisane, a co-founding chairperson of Gap Fixers of South Africa political party, said he caught the man in 2022 and handed him to the police, but found him in his house on different days last year.
He said in the fourth incident, he found the same suspect and two others in his house and fired a weapon, wounding the suspect in the leg. The accomplices escaped.
Mpisane said the man, who had been unable to walk because of the injury, had been arrested in his home. He said the police found a key to his house inside the man’s pocket.
Mpisane said the key was for “the main original door key”, claiming they used it to enter his home.
In July last year police told the IOS that a man had broken into into Mpisane’s property in La Lucia on December 22, 2022, and June 24, July 1, and July 7 2023.
The property is heavily guarded by armed security guards.