Murder charge for UCT killing
February 07, 2005 Edition 1
Babalo Ndenze and Sapa
Police are to ask the prosecution to change the main charge against former student Maleafisha Tladi, 35, to murder following the death of Brian Hahn, the University of Cape Town maths professor he is accused of assaulting.
When Tladi appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court last Monday he faced a charge of attempted murder. At the time Hahn was fighting for his life in hospital.
Tladi was released on R500 bail on condition that he did not set foot on the university's grounds and the case was postponed to March 1.
Hahn remained in a critical condition throughout last week and died in the Vincent Pallotti Hospital on Saturday.
Tladi allegedly assaulted Hahn with an umbrella at the university on January 28.
Police spokesman Elliot Sinyangana said the investigating officer would consult the prosecutor today about changing the charge from attempted murder to murder. If the prosecutor agrees he'll have to request the presiding magistrate to accept the new charge.
Hahn's wife, Cleone, said he her husband had severe facial fractures and had a stroke a day after the attack. The stroke left him paralysed on one side.
UCT would hold a memorial service for Hahn on the campus soon, said spokeswoman Andrea Weiss. UCT vice-chancellor Njabulo Ndebele said the university was in shock at Hahn's death.
"His family and friends will be facing the challenge of having to continue without Brian," he said.
"Our thoughts are with his family at this time. I am conscious of the enormous impact Professor Hahn's death will have on many members of the UCT community."
Ndebele said UCT had lost a colleague, a teacher and a scientist of outstanding quality and extraordinary calibre.
"Brian has served UCT well. His work and life were a constant and distinctive contribution, not only to UCT, but to the higher education sector in general. His death is an enormous loss.
"He was an extremely popular lecturer of undergraduate courses in applied mathematics and had just completed a six-month sabbatical devoted to research. He was due to start lecturing again in mid-February. Our thoughts and prayers are with Cleone, his wife and his family."
Hahn was born in Cape Town on November 21, 1946.
After completing his BSc in applied mathematics and physics and his BSc (Hons) in theoretical physics at UCT, he undertook a PhD on the optimisation of scattering amplitudes at the University of Cambridge.
Hahn was a senior lecturer at the Wits department of applied mathematics between 1973 and 1979 and later joined UCT as a senior lecturer.
He later became associate professor. He wrote more than 10 books to teach programming languages to beginners.
The head of the university's mathematics department, Christopher Gilmour, said Hahn had shown a lot of concern for his staff throughout his career.
"Working with the man I got to know him intimately. He was a man of faith, a fine scholar, producing many books. He did extensive research and everybody loved him... He was a wonderful human being."
Dave Richardson, retired honorary research associate, said he had known Hahn for almost 25 years and had collaborated with him in research for the past 14 years.
"In the second half of last year I worked almost full-time with him. His great contribution to science was biomathematics, the marrying of mathematics and biology, and he's been involved in many projects in that field."
Hahn is survived by his wife, children Lyndall, Andr and David and granddaughter Christine.
