Demands for presidential pardons for #FeesMustFall activists intensify
Calls for the scrapping of charges against students who were charged during the the university fees protests are growing.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been asked to grant presidential pardon to the activist who were arrested for various crimes relating to the 2016 protests.
Many students have been jailed for their conduct in their fight for free higher education.
Fees Must Fall activist, Bonginkosi Khanyile, is expected to stage a sleepout at the Union Buildings in Pretoria until his request for pardon has been acceded to.
The fate of another activist, Mcebo Dlamini, is also in Ramaphosa’s hands after he requested amnesty for students convicted of offences committed during the campaign.
He walked from Johannesburg to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum on Friday.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has joined the call.
The union is blaming government for what they believe to be students being forced to protest as government “consistently ignored them on the just demand for free, quality, decolonized higher education”.
“The ANC government has used the police and judiciary to persecute, prosecute and jail students for fighting for free education, a perfectly legitimate demand found in the Freedom Charter,” says Numsa’s general secretary, Irvin Jim.