March and March
Xolani Dlamini|Published
Two alleged March and March activists were granted R1,000 bail each in Durban, while a third accused, a parolee, remained in custody pending a further bail application.
The three accused, Wandile Nsibande, Aphelele "Magolide" Shinga, and Malizo Tzanibe, made their first appearance the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
Ahead of the court appearance, March and March members marched from the Home Affairs office on Che Guevara Road to the court to show support for the arrested members and for the students apprehended for looting incidents in Durban last week.
Shinga, Tzanibe and Nsibande face charges of public violence, obstruction of public roads, carrying dangerous weapons and public intimidation.
Shinga and Tzanibe received R1000 bail each, while Nsibande, who is a parolee, has been remanded in police custody.
He is expected to make a formal bail application.
In court, Senior Prosecutor Roshiela Benimadho said Nsimande, who was out on parole, was previously sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder.
He also has a pending case of assault in Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal.
At the start of the court proceedings, the State opposed televising the accused's appearance live, claiming public officers' lives would be endangered.
It argued that the accused's protest went beyond what is reasonably acceptable.
Lawyer Xolani Zuma, representing the accused, said the state was hiding behind some perceived fear.
The magistrate ruled that the media be allowed to live broadcast the court appearance of Shinga and Nsibande.
Magistrate Scelo Zuma said the state failed to demonstrate the prejudice it would suffer if the matter were televised live.
During bail application proceedings, the State prosecutor opposed bail for the accused because they were influencing the conduct of other protesters.
"There are videos where the accused are seen forcefully shutting down the businesses of foreign nationals, obstructing public roads and carrying dangerous weapons. The accused made threats about disrupting the MTN8 final on social media. For that reason, we are opposing the bail for the two accused Shinga and Tzanibe," said the State prosecutor.
The lawyers for the two accused argued that there was no evidence showing damage done and no truth to the allegations made against their clients.
The case was adjourned until Friday, October 16 for further investigation and for Nsibande to make a formal bail application.
The magistrate instructed the two accused who received bail to avoid confronting foreign nationals and coming near government officials at the Home Affairs office on Moore Road.
Speaking to the media after court proceedings, March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma blamed the police for arresting their members without proper evidence.
"There was nothing wrong done by our arrested members. It is clear that they were arrested for exercising their rights to demonstrate. The state cannot prove that the accused did something violent that caused outrage out there."
"We are coming back on Friday, and we hope that Nsibande will get bail because everyone is entitled to bail," Ngobese-Zuma added.
While going down the court steps, Nsibande claimed that the police wanted to kill them shortly after arresting them on Saturday afternoon.
Nsibande alleged that they took them to a certain bush.
As he was going down to his holding cell, he told those in the public gallery to keep fighting.