Former EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi is the latest to weigh in on the outcome of Fees Must Fall activist Mcebo Dlamini's court matter.

On Monday, the Johannesburg magistrate's court sentenced Dlamini to two years' imprisonment for public violence and six months for being in the country illegally. The sentences were suspended for five years. 

Dlamini pleaded guilty.

The former Wits University SRC president was arrested in 2016 and charged with violating a court order, public violence, theft, assaulting a police officer and malicious damage to property during student-led protests that began in 2015.

Accepting the convictions and sentences, Dlamini said: “I freely and voluntarily admit that my actions, while I was acting in concert with the protesters,unlawfully and intentionally invaded the rights of others by preventing them from attending academic lectures.”

Reacting, Ndlozi said Dlamini was “a gallant fighter for economic freedom in our lifetime”.

“They will try [to] erase him, but we will never forget his name.

“No court judgment will bury his contribution. He is revolutionary! Mcebo Dlamini is us,” said Ndlozi.

He added: “Mcebo Dlamini is the pre-eminent leader of Fees Must Fall, the movement for free, quality, decolonised education in our country!

“This is his historic signature. No court of law or prison will ever take it away from him. Students unite as we all salute this brave son of the soil.”

EFF leader Julius Malema compared the activist to the former prime minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, saying: “History will absolve you, young man.”