Forty-six In Mental Hospital At President's Pleasure

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Monday August 23, 2010 00:00

The Monitor has learnt that the longest serving is a 62-year-old man who was placed under the custody of the hospital in November 1990 then called Lobatse Mental Hospital.

The Monitor investigations have also found that a Mahalapye man, Liberty Mhlanga, still has not found a place at the hospital eight months after the Court of Appeal ruled that he should be transferred from prison to the facility. He was charged with several counts of armed robbery, attempted murder, murder and house break-in over 10 years ago and it was discovered that he was abnormal when he committed the offences.

When he appeared before the Court of Appeal early this year he pleaded for trial because his mental condition had stabilised. However, the judges said that he should be kept at S'brana Hospital. He has since indicated his intention to sue the state for unlawful detention.

Meanwhile, another young man, Taboka Moaro, who was charged with murder of Lungile Ndlangamandla in February 2006, and subsequently declared a criminal lunatic by a psychiatrist, is likely to spend the rest of his life at the Maximum Security State Prison, a source says. He was declared a criminal lunatic and that he should be kept at a safe place at the president's pleasure and that place was to be the prison.

The Monitor is reliably informed that Moaro only spent a few weeks in the facility and was later transferred to prison after it was discovered that he posed danger to other patients in the facility. He was suffering from an anti-social personality disorder.The High Court judge ordered in 2008 that he be detained at the President's pleasure in a place of safe custody at Gaborone Prison because 'he is a criminal lunatic suffering from a mental disorder' for which he cannot be kept at mental hospital. The court also found that he is a danger to society.

Attempts to get a comment from the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation on Friday failed.