The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has welcomed the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court’s decision to dismiss the application of Fees Must Fall activist Kanya Cekeshe. He had applied for leave to appeal his conviction.
The court also dismissed Cekeshe’s application for bail.
The student activist was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017, with three years suspended after pleading guilty to burning a police van at the height of the Fees Must Fall protests in 2016. Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is leading Cekeshe’s application.
The NPA’s Phindi Mjonondwane says they came to court arguing against the application.
“We welcome the court’s decision as the NPA. We came to court arguing that their application for release on bail was a premature application seeing that there is the petition that they submit to the office of the judge president and that outcome has not yet been announced. We don’t know whether the judge president’s office will grant them leave to appeal or not and in terms of their application for leave to appeal against conviction. We have argued that there are no prospects of success,” says Mjonondwane.
