Dozens of people demonstrated peacefully outside the Johannesburg office of the National Prosecuting Authority to demand that the charges against Xolani Gregory Khoza be dropped at once.
Khoza will appear in court on 9 July in Mbombela. A member of the Economic Freedom Fighters and trade-unionist, Khoza is being charged under the apartheid-era Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956 and the Cybercrimes Act of 2020 for posting a TikTok video calling for protest against the Government of National Unity and the removal of Cyril Ramaphosa as president.
For this he faces charges of incitement to commit terrorism, public violence and intimidation. Khoza was arrested by the Hawks in June 2024, at the same time when he was playing a prominent role in a SACCAWU strike against Spar, Khoza’s employer. Since his release on bail more than a year ago, Khoza has been banned from posting or using social media as a condition of his bail.
Denouncing Khoza’s persecution as a threat to anyone who would resist the neoliberal, pro-imperialist agenda of the GNU, a broad coalition of black liberation fighters, anti-imperialists, socialists and service delivery protesters came together to build the protest. Participants included members of EFF branches in Wards 9, 10, 15 and 34, as well as members of Black Consciousness Movement United, the Tembelihle Crisis Committee, Abahlali base Freedom Park, the Potchefstroom Solidarity Action Committee, and Sisonke Revolutionary Movement.
The campaign has been endorsed by dozens of individuals and organisations, from anti-apartheid stalwarts Lybon Mabasa and Ronnie Kasrils to the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO – PUDEMO Youth League). A member of the Swazi Liberation Movement addressed the protesters with greetings of solidarity.
Representatives of the Committee to Defend Xolani Khoza, which initiated the protest, emphasised the shared interest of all who face austerity and attacks from the GNU in uniting to oppose the persecution of Khoza.
One spokesperson explained: “This is an attack on all of us—trade unionists, radical nationalists, socialists, land rights activists, student organisations. Xolani’s persecution is a blatant assault on freedom of speech which threatens to brand any who would resist the attacks of the GNU as ‘terrorists’. We need to fight this! An injury to one is an injury to all!”
Another spokesperson, Tonny Velly Nkosi of the EFF, vowed that Xolani’s supporters would continue to fight for justice in the face of numerous delays by the state prosecution, aimed at wearing down Xolani’s supporters.
“We will fight, and we will continue to fight until Xolani Khoza is free. There is no police, no court of law, no Hawks or any form of intimidation that will stop us to fight this kind of oppression. … Amandla! Aluta continua!”
Khoza’s supporters will be joining him in court in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, tomorrow.
