NUMSA demands the scrapping of charges and the unconditional release of all #FeesMustFall activist
21 August 2018
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) demands the unconditional release and scrapping of charges of all #FeesMustFall activists. Students were forced to embark on protest action because the ANC-led government has consistently ignored them on the just demand for free, quality, decolonized higher education. Several students have been charged and convicted for participating in those protests.
21-year old Khanya Thandile Cekeshe is serving a sentence of eight years, (three years suspended) for allegedly setting a police van alight during the #FeesMustFall protests in 2016. Bonginkosi Khanyile was found guilty of alleged public violence, apparently failing to comply with a police instruction and the alleged possession of a dangerous weapon. In this case the ‘dangerous weapon’ was a slingshot! Mcebo Dlamini is expected to go on trial in September on charges of public violence and damage to property. These are just some of the students who are being persecuted by the ANC-led government for fighting for free education.
The ANC government has used the police and judiciary to persecute, prosecute and jail students for fighting for free education, a perfectly legitimate demand found in the Freedom Charter. Thousands of working class students participated in the public protests because they were being excluded from accessing education because it is so costly. They were violently assaulted and harassed by the police during the protests, and yet, not one officer has been arrested.
Bonginkosi’s conviction is unjustifiable. It is ridiculous in the extreme that a slingshot can be considered a dangerous weapon, when police officers are armed to the teeth, with R5 rifles, tear gas and all manner of weapons designed to kill. This was the same excuse used by the Apartheid government to justify the brutality and mass murder of peaceful protesters in Sharpeville in 1960. Now it’s the ANC’s turn to oppress the African working class majority!