Bonginkosi Khanyile, the #FeesMustFall activist who was nabbed on Sunday for allegedly inciting violence during last month’s unrest and looting, will remain behind bars at least until Thursday this week.
This is as his lawyers asked to be given time to study the charge sheet and prepare their arguments when applying for his bail, a move the State has already indicated that it would oppose.
Khanyile appeared at the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday after he was arrested in Gauteng.
The State slapped him with five charges and prominent among the charges was inciting violence and, to a lesser extent, addressing illegal gatherings and did not wear a mask while in public.
Among the gatherings the State alleges Khanyile addressed was one in Durban’s Smith Street on July 10, 2021. That was a day before the country experienced crippling looting and later unrest
Prior to that, the State alleges that between July 8 and 11, Khanyile “procured persons” to engage in public violence and that happened at the busy Warwick Junction in central Durban.
In all the counts Khanyile faces, the State argues that he should, for each count, be jailed for six months or fined R200 000.
Khanyile hails from Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal and he already has a conviction for his involvement in the #FeesMustFall protests of the 2015-16.
He has also not been shy to express his sympathy for jailed former President Jacob Zuma who also hails from Nkandla.
On July 16, at the height of the unrest and looting, he embarked on a campaign to demand the release of Zuma from prison, arguing that jailing a 79-year-old man was unjust.
Khanyile and Philani Nduli, a member of the EFF student command in KZN, stormed the Pietermaritzburg High Court precinct which was virtually hearing one of his cases, shouting at the top of their voices, demanding that Zuma be released.
Political Bureau