Nokuthula Simelane murder trial: Willem Coetzee will be able to follow proceedings, court told

JOHANNESBURG - The High Court in Pretoria’s heard that former apartheid policeman, Willem Coetzee, shouldn’t have any trouble following proceedings in his trial for the murder of uMkhonto weSizwe operative, Nokuthula Simelane.

Simelane was abducted and, it’s presumed, murdered in September 1983.

In 2016, Coetzee was finally arrested for the crime, alongside Anton Pretorius, also a former apartheid cop.

The case has been hamstrung by delay after delay, though with questions around Coetzee’s mental health now holding the process up and an inquiry into his fitness to stand trial having been convened as a result.

Questions around Coetzee’s fitness to stand trial first came to the fore in June 2022, when, just as the trial was due to get underway, the court heard he was suffering from a cognitive condition following a COVID-19 infection and was unable to follow proceedings.

Since then, the State and the defence have both secured expert reports, with the State’s taking the position that Coetzee is fit to stand trial and the defence’s, that he isn’t.

As a result, an inquiry into his fitness to stand trial got underway on Tuesday, with the State calling a specialist psychiatrist, whose identity the court has directed be withheld, as its first witness.

Coetzee was previously referred to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital for observation and she was on the panel tasked with his evaluation.

She’s said she didn’t pick up any diagnosable psychiatric condition affecting Coetzee and that even if there was one, in terms of her findings, it wouldn’t prevent him from following court proceedings and being able to put up a defence.

She’s described him as "frank, consistent, clear and not [easily] swayed".

The inquiry continues.