Charges fall in #FeesMustFall

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has decided not to proceed with the charges against the 18 Nelson Mandela University (NMU) students arrested during the 2016 #FeesMustFall protest. The students were arrested at the entrance to the George campus in October 2016 as well as during follow-up operations.

The students learnt their fate in the George Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday 23 October after an extensive consultative process involving the state and defence.

Winston Jansen, the students’ attorney, said, “The students were so stressed by the ordeal that they gasped in open court when they heard charges were withdrawn.”

The students were arrested for contravention of a court order and public violence relating to the Regulation of Gatherings Act.

The original eight were part of a group of 70 students who marched from their residences on campus to the main entrance of the university. Ten more students were charged after the police analysed video footage.