THE bail application of the alleged Parliament arsonist, Zandile Mafe, has been denied by the Cape Town Regional Court.

Magistrate Michelle Adams says Mafe’s legal team did not prove exceptional circumstances for him to be released on bail.

Forty-nine year-old Mafe had appeared in court on Saturday on charges ranging from arson to terrorism.

He was arrested shortly after Parliament was set alight last month. Mafe remains in custody at Pollsmoor Prison.

Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema says negligence was the main cause of the recent fire that gutted the National Assembly buildings at Parliament.

He says Mafe’s arrest is being used as a scapegoat to divert attention from government’s negligence.

“Do you think in your rightful mind, a person would burn Parliament and then goes and sleep next to where you have committed a crime… there’s no such thing. So I think more than anything guys, it’s negligence. They’ve not maintained Parliament, you may find out the rats have eaten the cables, that why it started burning from the roof and there was a spark and that spark caused the fire,” Malema says.