Johannesburg – Student leaders have the responsibility to ensure that students refrain from violence during protests, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng told Mcebo Dlamini on Friday in the High Court in Johannesburg.
"I also was a student at some stage, we wanted to chase the white man into the sea. As a leader you have the opportunity and responsibilities to conduct protests peacefully," Mokgoatlheng said after giving details on why he granted Dlamini bail of R2 000.
"There is no point in burning down buildings. If you want to prove a point you can do it without causing destruction," Judge Mokgoatlheng said.
Dlamini was arrested at his University of Witwatersrand (Wits) residence last year in October during the protests for free education, which were carried out under the #FeesMustFall campaign.
He faces multiple charges that include public violence, assault, theft and damage to property. Initially Dlamini was denied bail by the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court.
On Friday, Mokgoatlheng read through his judgement which stated why he granted Dlamini bail and why he felt the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court had exercised it's discretion incorrectly and was misdirected.
Mokgoatlheng said the decision to deny Dlamini bail was not lawfully sound and said that the magistrate should have ordered the State to grant the defence access to the videos they said show Dlamini committing the alleged crimes.
"The State refused to make the evidence available, which was unlawful. That video was not shown to the accused person nor the defence," Mokgoatlheng said.
The judge also said that the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court contradicted itself as the two still photographs used by the State as evidence did not prove that it was indeed the accused in the pictures.
Mokgoatlheng, however, agreed with the State that Dlamini had lied about his exams.
"In my view the prosecutor was correct that Dlamini was misleading the court by saying that he had to write a test and it was a blatant lie," sad the judge.
"He was not honest and frank by saying he had been registered for a course and had to write an examination."
Mokgoatlheng said that the judgement on whether Dlamini's arrest was politically motivated could only be reached after the case had been concluded.
Dlamini's legal representative Thabo Kwinana said that they were in the process of getting the case against Dlamini, which is set to begin in June, dropped.
Dlamini said that the #FeesMustFall movement would continue.
He said he would show solidarity with Durban University of Technology's Bonginkosi “Education” Khanyile and other students leaders who are still detained in KwaZulu Natal.
"I finished writing exams on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to taking other students leaders to KZN to visit Kanyile," said Dlamini.
"The public should know that he got four distinctions while in prison. There are those who were going to class but didn't get distinctions."