UCT student found not guilty after killing professor

By Tarryn Le Chat
20 January 2007

The post-graduate student who killed University of Cape Town maths professor Brian Hahn in his office with an umbrella last year was found not guilty of murder by mental illness yesterday.

Steve Tladi, 37, was declared unfit to stand trial. Wynberg magistrate, Jackie Redelinghuys said that Tladi would be detained in a psychiatric institution or hospital with such a facility, pending the decision of a judge in chambers.

Tladi was diagnosed as schizophrenic by three psychiatrists at the Wynberg Regional Court and was “certifiable in terms of the Mental Health Act”.

Badeeah Solomons., for Tladi, asked that he be held at a psychiatric institution in Limpopo, near his family.

Last February in court, Tladi, who had been a student of Hahn’s, said that he had had an argument with Hahn about documents the professor wanted, but which he refused to part with.