Video: ANCYL members celebrate release of rape accused politician
- A clip of ANC supporters celebrating the release of a councillor accused of rape has outraged Mzansi
- The politician was released on bail within minutes of his first appearance in court
- The response from supporters, who mocked ANCWL members protesting the politician's release, has raised more than a few eyebrows
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An unnamed City of Joburg ANC councillor, charged with rape, was released on bail within minutes of making his first appearance in court.
The Wynberg Regional Court saw the politician walked in from holding cells in leg clamps to face the music.
The accused, who cannot be named until he has pleaded according to SA law, reportedly was as cool as a cucumber in court despite facing a Schedule 5 offence.
Source: Getty Images
This means that the ANC politician can face a minimum sentence of 10 to 20 years, something that Magistrate Gideon Schnetler explained.
IOL reports that state prosecutor Ayanda Bakana says the investigating officer had confirmed the address of the accused with no previous convictions or pending cases. The state also opted out of opposing bail.
Bakana explained that the victim, whose name has been protected, outlined the allegations as follows:
“The victim alleges that she visited her friend (the accused) on Christmas Day in Alexandra. She said the offence happened in the early hours of December 26. Later on that day, the accused and his friend took her to her place of residence in Tembisa."
The victim reportedly went for a medical exam the next day, only reporting the crime on 29 December. No reason for this delay was given by the victim.
Despite the state opting out of opposing bail, the prosecutor insists that they have a solid case against the suspect.
Two factions of the ANC protested outside of the court for two very different reasons, one supporting the accused while the ANC Women's League supported the victim.
The ANCWL was led by their regional chair Ndivhuwo Sekoba and insisted that the accused should not be released on bail considering that gender-based violence is on the rise in Joburg.
However, the ANC Youth League members were adamant that the charges against the politician were politically motivated and even claimed that it was a result of issues within the local ANC leadership.
When the accused was released on bail the ANCYL members sang and even mocked ANCWL members with the clip prompting outrage on social media. View the clip below:
Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za reported that ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte says that SA minus the ANC simply cannot be imagined.
Without going into specifics as to why Duarte also claimed that the ANC being dethroned would spark a civil war:
“Comrades, it is very difficult when you speak with people who doubt that the ANC should continue. You know in your heart that you can never live in a country where there is no ANC because the opposite to that would be chaos and, undoubtedly, a civil war that we all don’t want."
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Source: Briefly News
