Court to decide on detention

FORMER Wits SRC president and student leader Mcebo Dlamini will know his fate today after he brought in a high-profile legal team to appeal against the decision to deny him bail.

The 32-year-old postgraduate law student roped in advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi yesterday to appeal against an earlier Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court decision.

They argued that it would be in the interests of justice for Dlamini to be released.

Dlamini was charged with public violence, theft, malicious damage to property, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a dangerous weapon last month.

Mpofu said the case against Dlamini was politically motivated and the state was trying to keep Dlamini off campus through the introduction of spurious charges and detention.

Describing the charges as pathetic, Mpofu said the prosecution was unable to prove that Dlamini was violent on campus.

Also pictures used as evidence were of low quality and showed a person from behind, while the prosecution and a police officer who had submitted an affidavit promising to supply the video had not done so.

Mpofu said the past three weeks had been hellish for Dlamini.

Prosecutor Steven Rubin said that Dlamini, as a student leader and law student, should have known about the interdict the university obtained in April preventing illegal gatherings and that he was contravening the order.

“We’re not dealing with a lay person here. He is a postgraduate law student,” Rubin said.

Meanwhile, violence linked to the #FeesMustFall protests has continued to trouble the University of Western Cape despite the start of the exams.

A university spokesman said arson was being investigated and protesters had also allegedly held a staff member hostage.