Durban - A relative of the man accused with placing a hoax bomb device at a Vereeniging Mosque believes police have taken advantage of his mental illness and were “pinning allegations” on him.
The Hawks are investigating the possibility that the accused, Heinrich Holtzhausen, was also linked to the attack on Verulam’s Imam Hussain Mosque in May. This after it emerged at a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on policing last week that Holtzhausen, who is in police custody, previously lived in Verulam.
The committee meeting delved into issues related to attacks on mosques and the discovery of incendiary devices in Durban recently.
But the relative, who asked not to be named, denied that Holtzhausen, 36, lived in Verulam, and said he had always lived with his parents at a flat in Vereeniging.
“He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2009 and has suffered a lot and required hospital stays for treatment. We do not even know where Verulam is and do not have knowledge of him living there. We are concerned about his well-being and feel things are being deliberately pinned on him because he has a mental illness,” said the relative.
The relative said they only knew that he lived at a mosque in Durban for a while, where they fed him and gave him shelter, and he did a few odd jobs there. This was at a time when he was reported missing. The relative also confirmed that he had gone missing on a few occasions, as a result of his condition. But they did not know which mosque he had lived in.
Last Thursday, Holtzhausen appeared in the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court for a formal bail application. He abandoned the application and the case was remanded to November 16.
He was arrested on July 31 for allegedly planting what appeared to be a bomb at the Masjid Taqwa in Roshnee, Vereeniging.
The founder of Verulam’s Imam Hussain Mosque, Azad Seedat, said he had been anxiously waiting for the police’s progress on the May 10 incident in which three knife-wielding men stormed the Shia-sect mosque and slit the throat of Abbas Essop, 34. Two others, Ali Nchinyane and Muhammad Ali, were hurt in the attack. Two days later an undetonated explosive device was found at the mosque. It has been more than 100 days since the incident.
At the portfolio committee meeting, the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard said police mentioned that investigations were at a sensitive stage and they could not give too much detail.
EFF MPL Blessing Mhlongo, who also attended the meeting, said: “We are not satisfied with the progress made so far. From the feedback we have received, it appears that little or no progress has been made.”
The Hawks spokesperson, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, could not confirm if any arrests would be made soon as it was an “operational matter”.
nabeelah.shaikh@inl.co.za