FeesMustFall activist to be freed

CONVICTED FeesMustFall activist Lukhanyo Matinise is set to return home at the end of the month after his parole application was approved by the Department of Correctional Services.

Matinise was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Western Cape Regional Court for arson and public violence in May last year.

He was arrested following the torching of the historic St Mark’s Anglican Church on the District Six campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2017.

At the time police said the 25-yearold was caught by security with a petrol bomb in his hand. Reports later surfaced alleging that it might be the work of a security company that stands to benefit from the unrest that was taking place at the time.

Matinise was a first-year student when arrested, and has over the years denied that he was behind the torching of the over 150-year-old church.

His mother, Nomzamo Matinise, said they couldn’t wait to welcome him back home.

“I was so happy when I received the news that he was going to be released soon. It did not sit well with me that he was languishing in jail,” she said.

Nomzamo said that after his sentencing in May, the judge told her Lukhanyo would be eligible for parole after serving 10 months. “When 10 months passed, we did not hear anything from the officials, and we started getting worried. We followed up, and we got assisted. Lukhanyo is in high spirits and cannot wait to be home.”