Court problems won’t restrain student leader
THE dream to use a bar of Lux is what gave birth to Mcebo Dlamini’s involvement in #Feesmustfall.
The #Feesmustfall activist and former Wits SRC president grew up in poverty with an uncle who often told him the gateway to being able to wash with Lux was university.
Dlamini says he could not sit back and watch “the injustice of our brothers and sisters being forced to go back to poverty”.
He walked up to 3km to get to school and did not have proper study materials. When he got into university he was financially excluded.
“My uncle always told us that if we wanted to wash with Lux we had to go to university, and that is what we aspired to. We could see he had the financial means to live a better life and we wanted to elevate ourselves.
“We grew up with that understanding, that university is the only way.”
The activist and father of two grew up with the dream of becoming an advocate, focusing on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
This was fuelled by watching a cousin who was “a successful lawyer, who drove nice cars and had everything he wanted”.
“I am still focused on that dream because I want to touch lives and I believe that through my work as an activist I will be able to do just that,” added Dlamini.
Growing up he remembers a house full of relatives and friends.
“There were always up to 10 people in the house. Sometimes we were told that they had to live with us because they were related somehow… This taught me to share and feel the pain and agony of others.
“That is why I could not watch other students having to drop out and going to seek employment at Shoprite because of financial exclusion. I could not take it anymore.”
Dlamini, who was born in Swaziland, was raised by an uncle who was an MK soldier and a mother who was a PAC soldier.
“Poverty shaped the activist in me; the lack of food, clothes and not being able to have your basic needs met.”
He is now facing charges of malicious damage to property, theft, possession of a dangerous weapon and public violence, which led to his arrest in 2016.
This stems from the violence that broke out during #Feesmustfall protests at Wits University.
Along with other activists, he is determined to fight for the release of jailed students and amnesty for himself. He may face a seven-year sentence.
However, this has not deterred the post-graduate LLB student, who also holds a BSC degree.
“If the government heeds our pleas to pardon all #Feesmustfall activists, or grant us amnesty, I must say the future for me looks bright in the legal fraternity.”
Dlamini stands firm in his belief that black students are being targeted and victimised by the government to “keep them in poverty”.
Standing outside Parliament earlier this week, he told students to free themselves of political affiliation and be independent.
“As young people we have an obligation to change the status quo and challenge and put questions on the table and shape the discourse. It is us who must determine the line of march and what is discussed in this house (Parliament),” he said.