Ram Bahadur Bamjon drew international attention in 2005 when tens of thousands of people turned up to see the teenager sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest for nearly 10 months.
The accused was notified that the court had already found him guilty as charged, and he was summoned to appear for a mitigation of sentence.
The courts are chaotic, the conviction rate is low, and South Africa’s crime problem is clearly out of control.
True-crime TV shows are all the rage at the moment, and the story of this Pretoria man wouldn’t be out of place on our screens. Here’s what went wrong.