The #FreeJacobZuma campaign outraged by the arrest of comrade Bonginkosi Khanyile and the repressive actions by an increasingly dictatorial state

26 August 2021

The #FreeJacobZuma campaign is perturbed by the continuing harassment and intimidation of concerned South Africans who are opposed to the continuing illegal political imprisonment of President Jacob Zuma.

One of the most recent cases is the arrest and court appearance in the magistrate court in Durban of comrade Bonginkosi Khanyile, who became known as one of the courageous #FeesMustFall student leaders. Comrade Khanyile has consistently and fearlessly called for the release of President Jacob Zuma. As a consequence the state pursued and relentlessly harassed him, and abused COVID-19 protocols to get him arrested and charged in order to silence his strident voice for justice for President Zuma, as well as his commitment for the implementation of Radical Economic Transformation (RET) in order to redress the deepening inequality and economic exploitation of the majority of black (especially African) South Africans.

The so-called ‘charges’ against comrade Khanyile are flimsy in the extreme. It is evident that security and legal apparatuses of the State, including the NPA and our highly compromised courts, are prepared to shamelessly abuse COVID-19 protocols in order to advance their viciously repressive agenda to silence all peaceful, legal and legitimate opposition to their oppressive political and neo-liberal imperialist economic agenda, in the service of their White Monopoly Capital (WMC) masters.

The #FreeJacobZuma campaign applaud comrade Bonginkosi Khanyile for his courageous statement from the dock, during which he uncompromisingly demanded that President Jacob Zuma must be released immediately, and protested his innocence and that he will not be intimidated by the unconstitutional repression of Freedom of Speech by the State.

The #FreeJacobZuma campaign warns once again that we now experience is similar, and in some instances worse than the repressive militarization that unfolded under the apartheid regime. Evidently our country is now becoming a dictatorship, with armored vehicles and heavily armed soldiers and police officers being deployed at every court hearing, where supporters of democracy and the #FreeJacobZuma campaign are being charged on trumped up charges in order to silence their democratic and salient calls for justice.

The #FreeJacobZuma campaign has noted with concern, and utter disgust, that the newly appointed Minister of Defense and Military Veterans, Ms. Thandi Modise, has announced that her first task as Minister is to establish an Army ‘Riot Squad’ to act against peaceful protests.

The awful irony of this announcement, and especially the name ‘Riot Squad’, is not lost on us. This is exactly what the apartheid regime called the special forces Riot Squad units that they used to viciously break up and oppress community based peaceful protests against apartheid.

We are under no illusion that the Riot Squad that Minister Modise now plans to establish has exactly the same mission. This Riot Squad will turn out to be nothing less than the fascist jackboots of an increasingly dictatorial state, and ultimate they will become the same askaris and death squads, that the similarly named Riot Squads of the apartheid era used to be.

The #FreeJacobZuma campaign is under no illusion about the intolerant and vicious tsunami of repressive undemocratic action that we are up against. However, we have a sacred democratic and revolutionary mission not to allow ourselves to be intimidated and to cower. We will continue to speak fearlessly, insisting on our constitutional right to Freedom of Speech, and we will continue to mobilize rolling peaceful mass action, which are lawful, in order to advance our democratic revolutionary objectives.

A LUTA CONTINUA!

Issued by Carl Niehaus on behalf of the #FreeJacobZuma campaign, 26 August 2021