There is no Ubuntu in how Khanya Cekeshe has been treated

There is no Ubuntu in how Khanya Cekeshe has been treated - Thuli Madonsela

4 December 2019 12:13 PM

Calls to for the unconditional release of Fees Must Fall protestor, Khanya Cekeshe continues.

Last week, hundreds of people under the #FreeKhanyaCekesheMovement marched through the streets of Pretoria to hand a memorandum of demands to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola.

Cekeshe was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to eight-years for public violence and malicious damage to property.

Africa Melane stand-in for Eusebius McKaiser speaks to former Public Protector and Stellenbosch University chair of social justice advocate Thuli Madonsela.

The sentence is too harsh. There is no Ubuntu in how this young person has been treated.
— Advocate Thuli Madonsela, Chair - Social justice at Stellenbosch University

The case that Khanya Cekeshe was not a Wits student shouldn't matter. The fees must fall movement was a student movement, it was not specific to a particular university.
— Advocate Thuli Madonsela, Chair - Social justice at Stellenbosch University

Criminal law expert professor James Grant says there is a possibility that similar cases are treated differently.

Is there a possibility of class and race still influencing the decision of our courts? Absolutely. I think you would be insane to try and deny that.
— Professor James Grant, Criminal Law expert

If his (Khanya's) new lawyer can show that he didn't understand what was going on, then they would have a good chance to have the decision set aside.
— Professor James Grant, Criminal Law expert

Former student leader Shaeera Kalla says justice delayed is justice denied.

There is no understanding of the context within which Khanya's actions were taken. Someone didn't just wake up and decide today I'm going to commit an act of violence.
— Shaeera Kalla, Former student leader