Slingshot student to spend another week in jail

Published Dec 14, 2016

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Durban - Durban University of Technology (DUT) student Bongkinkosi Khanyile will have to wait until next week Tuesday to have his bail appeal heard because of a bungle by his attorneys. 

Khanyile was arrested during running battles between police and DUT students on September 27 that took place during the height of the #FeesMustFall movement. 

He was charged with incitement to commit public violence, illegal gathering, possession of dangerous weapons (a slingshot), obstructing traffic, causing a nuisance on public roads and possession of explosives. 

Khanyile had twice been denied bail by Magistrate Jackie Jonck.

The Durban High Court heard on Wednesday that Khanyile's attorneys had not delivered an appeal for bail to Jonck, a standard practice. 

State advocate Kalvin Singh told Judge Nkosinathi Chilli that Khanyile's advocates "had no clue how to go about the procedure". 

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are paying Khanyile's legal costs.

Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi said that his attorneys could fight with the State outside the courtroom about proper procedure, but assured Chilli that the notice of appeal would be served on Wednesday.

"The applicants must serve the magistrate with a notice to appeal," said Chilli, before adjourning the matter to Tuesday 20 December at the Pietermaritzburg High Court. 

Speaking to the African News Agency (ANA) afterwards, attorney Sinqobile Khuluse said that the bail application not being filed was "just a technicality". 

"The appeal notice not being served was overlooked by us and [the State], so we got a sitdown despite the notice not being attended to," she said. 

Khanyile, clad in a white T-Shirt emblazoned with an image of Fidel Castro and the quote "History will absolve me", said that history was repeating itself. 

"It's like when Castro was jailed by Batista; we have a situation here where the State is doing everything in its power to ensure that we are supressed.

"Me being jailed here is not only for me. They are trying to intimidate people outside, the same people who believe in the struggle for free and quality education," he said. 

When asked if he had any regrets over what he had allegedly done, he said: "Let me be honest with you, jail is very difficult. You get to stay with a person who has raped and murdered when you know that you have never even laid a finger on anyone."

He said that despite the horrors of jail, he did not regret protesting for "free, decolonised education". 

"Yes, it's hard to be here because it's the festive season and I am a young person, I am supposed to be with young people outside. But I am kept here by the State, and it must be put on record that the complainant is the State that is complaining because we are fighting for free education," he said. 

The State was trying to make an example of him, said Khanyile. 

"My arrest was to arrest the idea of free education. They are repeating the very mistake that our oppressors made. They are not trying to arrest me as an individual, they are trying to arrest an idea," he said. 

He said it was "painful" to hear that some universities had decided on an eight percent fee increase while he was in prison to pay the price for free education.

About 40 officers from SAPS, public order policing and Metro Police were stationed at the courthouse. According to a police source, they were expecting about 200 protestors, mostly from the EFF, but only about 60 pitched up. 

African News Agency

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