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On Wednesday night, Kgotsi Chikane slept on a thin gym mat on the concrete floor inside a prison cell after he and five others were charged with high treason for protesting outside Parliament against an increase in university fees.
The 24-year-old public policy honours student at the University of Cape Town (UCT) was not afraid to speak up for his vision to bring change to South Africa.
The son of struggle veteran Reverend Frank Chikane, Kgotsi is the president of InkuluFreeHeid, a not-for-profit organisation that he founded to unite young South Africans to solve economic and social problems. He helped spearhead the #RhodesMustFall movement and was one of the leaders behind the #FeesMustFall campaign this week.
After learning about the treason charge, his mother, Kagiso, flew from the family home in Johannesburg to support her son in Cape Town. The high treason charge was withdrawn during the night.
“Someone came to their senses overnight. In the morning, it was still kind of hanging over our heads,” Kgotsi said.
Kgotsi was arrested alongside Advocate Wim Trengove’s son Markus and Chumani Maxwele, Kevin French, Nathan Taylor and Lindsey Maasdorp, who fast became known as the Bellville Six after spending the night imprisoned at the Bellville Police Station.
He is part of a new generation of activists born to parents and grandparents who played their part in the struggle against apartheid.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s son Nyakallo was also arrested outside Parliament.
In Durban, Fatima Meer, a grandniece of anti-apartheid icon and human rights activist Professor Fatima Meer, was part of the protest march from the Durban University of Technology, which moved to the city hall and ended at the ANC’s provincial offices.
The final-year pharmacy student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal said she joined the protest to help force government to understand that affordable education was central to ending poverty in the long run.
“If government wants to end the cycle of poverty, why is education being placed out of reach of most people? It is the only way for people to be freed from this,” she said.
She added that her family was “happy”that she was participating in the campaign.
“There needs to be a system where access to education is a reality for everybody, not just the wealthy,” she said.
In an interview with City Press yesterday, Kgotsi Chikane spoke about how he was arrested on Wednesday when thousands of students forced their way past police into the parliamentary precinct.
The students chanted: “We want Blade!” and lifted placards including one that read: “1976 Reloaded”.
Riot police with plastic shields and masks used stun grenades, Tazers and tear gas to disperse the students.
“We were sitting. This officer threw those things [stun grenades] like toys,” said Chikane.
Another UCT student, Thabo Tshelane, was in shorts and his legs were burnt by a stun grenade. He said: “They were throwing things at us and telling us to f**k off, but the gates of Parliament had been shut behind the first students they had managed to push out, so we couldn’t get out.
“It was hectic and confusing, I was terrified,” he said.
Chikane asked City Press not to elaborate on the details of his arrest because he still needed to compile a statement. He will appear in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court in February.
Just after 4pm, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande left the National Assembly building and walked up to the fence to address the crowd. He tried to speak to the protesters, but students booed him as he turned around, and a young man hurled a water bottle at him over the iron spikes.
Former national police commissioner Bheki Cele took Nzimande’s place and lifted both hands up at the crowd, but he had water thrown at him too.
Chikane said: “It was good that Blade stepped out to speak to the people. But he took too long. He had multiple opportunities to address us earlier. What is the point of having an elected official who is afraid to speak to the people?”
He lashed out at Nzimande’s “joking” comment that “students must fall”, which he had made at a press conference on Thursday.
“Blade should speak to us like we are academics, not babies from the crib,” said Chikane.
Chikane insisted the police used too much force against predominantly nonviolent students.
“Many people think we’re just a bunch of unruly students. But it is a national issue and affects everyone,” he said.
He says he has his father’s full support.
