R250 frees student leader
CONCOURT SLAMS KHANYILE’S 6-MONTH DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL MOM GRATEFUL FOR MALEMA’S SUPPORT
“I HOPE you’re not fooling me.”
This was Durban University of Technology (DUT) #FeesMustFall activist Bonginkosi Khanyile’s response to former Wits University student representative council president Mcebo Dlamini after being informed the Constitutional Court had freed him.
This was after five months and two days of what Acting Deputy Chief Justice Bess Nkabinde described as “detention without trial”.
The 27-yearold father of three was granted R250 bail yesterday. Khanyile was arrested on September 27 during protests by DUT students demanding free education. His bid to gain freedom had failed at the Durban Magistrate’s Court, the Pietermaritzburg High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal before yesterday’s dramatic events, during which the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) opposition to Khanyile being freed collapsed under questioning by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and Justices Nkabinde, Raymond Zondo and Mbuyiseli Madlanga. “How much longer will the applicant (Khanyile) be kept in detention without trial as no trial date has been set,” asked Nkabinde. She said prosecutors violated Section 12 of the Constitution by allowing Khanyile to be jailed without a trial date being set. Mogoeng quizzed the NPA’s Andy Bester on how Khanyile could intimidate 14 police officers and two DUT managers should he be granted bail. Earlier, Bester had said one of the reasons the EFF Students Command DUT branch chairman could not be released was that there was a possibility that he would intimidate witnesses.
One of Khanyile’s advocates, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, told the court the magistrate who denied the student leader bail had not properly interpreted and applied the Constitution.
Ngcukaitobi, who appeared with EFF national chairman Dali Mpofu, said Khanyile’s bail hearing was the first to be heard by the Constitutional Court since murder and robbery accused Bongani Dlamini’s bid, which was lodged in 1998. Mpofu said Khanyile passed all four of his final-year modules with distinction despite his incarceration.
Khanyile’s mother, Phumzile Khathini, said her son, whom she referred to by his nickname “Education”, was strong and brave.
“He must fight for what he believes in, it’s not for me to tell him to stop,” Khathini said.
She said she was grateful to EFF leader Julius Malema for his support.