Charges dropped against UWC students after 16 months


Cape Town - After 16 months of delays in court proceedings' the Bellville Magistrate's Court has dropped charges against a group of 23 students from the University of the Western Cape, who had spent a week in jail, reported GroundUp.

One of the students, Nwabisa Zenani, told GroundUp that she wasn't involved in the Fees Must Fall protest. She said she had been studying for upcoming exams on the day she was arrested in October 2016.

Investigations by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) led the students' Legal Aid attorney to make representations to the prosecution. Charges of public violence were withdrawn on Monday.

'Falsely accused and imprisoned'
Zenani, who is studying accounting, said being falsely accused and imprisoned was "terrifying"
"Never in a million years do you expect to find yourself in that situation," she said.

Fellow accused Jabulani Ngobeni, who is also studying accounting, said he "was devastated" when he was charged with public violence.

Zenani and Ngobeni said that, when they were arrested, they were inside a University residence watching the protest escalating outside. Zenani said someone had thrown a stone at the police from the building. "They[the police] just started banging the doors," said Zenani. They beat some of us; and then they moved us to Bellville police station."
The student appeared in Court two days after their arrest and were denied bail.

Link:https://mainnews.net/africa/south-africa/charges-dropped-against-uwc-students-after-16-months/


Comments

  1. Unknown3 March 2018 at 08:26

    black students are still oppressed in South African universities.

    ReplyDelete

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