Student leader Mcebo Dlamini appears at the Johannesburg Magistrates court, 18 October 2016. for his bail application. Dlamini is facing charges of public violence, theft, malicious damage to property and assault. The judgement on the bail hearing will be handed down today. Picture: Alaister Russell
The trial of one of the most well-known faces of the Fees Must Fall movement, Mcebo Dlamini, will only proceed again in April.
Mediation to avoid a trial was unsuccessful after Dlamini was charged with violating a court order, theft, public violence and assaulting a police officer in 2016 in relation to protests at Wits University.
He had earlier told media he was confident his trial would finally start today in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. Alternatively, he wanted it struck off the roll.
Dlamini was represented by Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi.
His case has been postponed several times before.
In August, Dlamini walked from Wits University to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to ask President Cyril Ramaphosa to release activists arrested during the student protests.
He wrote on his Facebook profile that he took the decision to write a formal letter to Ramaphosa “calling on him to exercise his prerogative powers and grant amnesty and pardon all the fees must fall activists”.
The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command had also threatened revolt and promised to make the country ungovernable should the state continue to hunt down and prosecute student activists involved in the protests.
Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor revealed that institutions of higher learning suffered nearly R800 million in protest damage in the past three financial years.
Dlamini is in the running to lead the ANC Youth League.
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