Fees Must Fall activist Bonginkosi Khanyile walked out of the Westville Prison a free man at 9.30am on Thursday after a Constitutional Court ruling the previous day.

Clad in a blue Fidel Castro T-shirt‚ jeans and maroon takkies‚ a visibly relieved Khanyile beamed with excitemement after spending five months behind bars after being refused bail.

A defiant Khanyile likened his imprisonment to that of struggle hero Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe who was kept behind bars “under the apartheid regime when he was an innocent man“.

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Khanyile has vowed to continue with the struggle for free education in South Africa.

“I am out of prison but not yet free because the president has betrayed us on the question of free education. The struggle continues. Our demand is clear: we want free‚ decolonised education‚” he said outside the prison.

He also proclaimed his innocence‚ saying he had done nothing wrong from the beginning.

“I’ve never done anything. I’ve never assaulted a police officer. I’ve never burned an institution. I never burnt those tyres I am alleged to have burnt‚” he said.

Khanyile was set to head to the Durban University of Technology campus where he was arrested. Students had already gathered to welcome him.