#FeesMustFall activist Kanya Cekeshe hospitalised

#FeesMustFall student activist Kanya Cekeshe has been admitted to hospital, his legal team has said.

“He’s being admitted. Mentally he is suffering tremendously,” said his lawyer, Wikus Steyl.

Steyl added while he could not divulge further details surrounding Cekeshe’s admission, he said it had nothing to do with an attack inside the cells but was purely based on his mental health.

“I can confirm it was definitely not an attack, purely mental health,” said Steyl.

Cekeshe, believed to be one of the last #FeesMustFall activists still in prison, was convicted of public violence and malicious damage to property when he tried to set a police van alight during protests in 2016.

He received an eight year sentence and has been held at the Leeuwkop Correctional Centre in Bryanston since 2017.

His bid to appeal the conviction and be released on bail pending the appeal was dismissed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in October.

Cekeshe’s defence team, led by advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Steyl, argued the lawyer who represented him in the trial was incompetent.

They also argued there were discrepancies between the charges against Cekeshe and what was in his statement. However, handing down judgment, magistrate Theunis Carstens said there was no merit in the arguments.

Cekeshe has since turned to the High Court in Johannesburg to challenge his conviction and sentence.

In an affidavit to the high court, Steyl stated the notice was an appeal against the “wrong decision of magistrate Carstens”.