The case against 31-year-old Mandisi Gwanya – who is accused of cannibalism - has again been postponed for several weeks‚ this time after his Legal Aid lawyer failed to show up in court on Thursday morning.
Port St Johns Regional Court Magistrate Noxolo Mfobo granted a request by state prosecutor Michael Bradfield to postpone the case after he told her that Gwanya's Legal Aid representative was not present for the case to proceed.
Mfobo subsequently postponed the case until March 16.
The Daily Dispatch reported last month that Gwanya‚ who has since been dubbed the "Port St Johns cannibal"‚ had been told by Mfobo that a panel of psychiatrists had found him unfit to stand trial.
Instead‚ Mfobo told him that he would be sent to a mental institution in KwaZulu-Natal.
He was arrested early last year for allegedly killing‚ dismembering and eating some body parts of his four-year-old nephew Kamvelihle Ngala.
