Kanya Cekeshe bail hearing postponed amid complaints of unfair treatment

The public violence and malicious damage to state resources case against #FeesMustFall activist Kanya Cekeshe has been postponed to Monday for a bail application judgement.

Cekeshe was sentenced to five years behind bars for public violence and malicious damage to property of a police vehicle in December 2017.

He appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Wednesday and was supported by his mother Takazi, EFF spokesperson Mbuyseni Ndlozi and EFF MP Vuyani Pambo.

Speaking outside court Takazi said the justice system had failed them. She had attended court hoping she would go home with her son, who she believed had fought for “better education, in terms of free fees for all”.

She said Kanya was not taking being imprisoned very well as he had been sick several times of late. She hoped his hope for bail remained unshaken.

Outside the court, Ndlozi addressed a crowd of supporters to argue that government was satisfied with the status quo of benefiting from uneducated countrymen.

“I don’t think they hate you, I think they are scared of you. How do you explain a government that is scared of children who want education?

“It’s essentially a government of people with low self-esteem. They must keep us uneducated because these some profit in the status quo remaining when people in the majority of the population are uneducated.”

He questioned why the state was opposing Cekeshe’s bail but had granted the bail of some prominent people. He elaborated on the differences in this case compared with that of convicted Paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

South African courts gave Oscar Pistorius a bail throughout his “murder” trial. Why not give #KanyaCekeshe, who faces much lower charges like damage to property, a bail?

Kanya did not kill anyone, he did not even harm anyone! The state does not even know why it’s opposing bail!

— Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (@MbuyiseniNdlozi) October 9, 2019

A large number of EFF supporters were outside the court in support of Cekeshe, who is being represented by Adv Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.

Ngcukaitobi has argued that Cekeshe was initially poorly represented and that he should be granted bail pending the appeal to his conviction and sentence.

Last week, the state told the judge that they had not filed the responding affidavit regarding the bail application, which led to an agreement between Ngcukaitobi and the National Prosecuting Authority with regards to the bail hearing.

Cekeshe pleaded guilty to public violence and malicious damage to property charges after #FeesMustFall protests in 2016.

He maintains he was incorrectly advised to plead guilty, even though the burden of proof regarding his charges was on the state, and accused his previous counsel of continuously interrupting the magistrate, going on incoherent rambling rants throughout the trial, and repeatedly showing up late.

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