Zandile Mafe, the man suspected of setting Parliament alight, confessed to the crime after he was arrested inside the historic building, prosecutors said in court Saturday.
Zandile Mafe, the man suspected of setting Parliament alight, confessed to the crime after he was arrested inside the historic building, prosecutors said in court Saturday.
Mafe appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court for his bail hearing.
He will know his fate in the next few days after the court said it would deliver judgement on February 4.
He faces several charges, including terrorism, robbery and arson.
Prosecutors said they have CCTV footage showing a man, believed to be Mafe, setting fire to the Parliament building using paper and boxes doused in petrol and dropping it in the National Assembly.
He also allegedly ripped up curtains to help fuel the blaze.
Prosecutors said according to an affidavit given to investigators immediately after his arrest, Mafe said he wanted to burn down parly as it was not helping the people of South Africa.
He said that he wanted to stop President Cyril Ramaphosa from delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA) and to demand his resignation.
Mafe, who was released from Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital earlier this month after a district surgeon diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, had insisted that he was not guilty and said he would sue the state for wrongful arrest.
According to prosecutors, Mafe also wants the state to release Janus Walusz, convicted of murdering SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993, and for the government to pay unemployed South Africans R1,500 in aid.
Government has announced that the SONA, set to take place on 10 February, would be moved to the Cape Town City Hall.
